


Does it Hurt?

by squireofgeekdom



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And a Jennifer Walters cameo! you're welcome, Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, Gen, Implied Pepper/Tony/Rhodey at the end, Past Character Death, and blink-and-you-miss-it implied Sam/Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-07-12 07:25:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7091467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squireofgeekdom/pseuds/squireofgeekdom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve doesn't find Bucky after the bomb. Bucky finds Tony. They have a conversation.</p><p>Then things get complicated.</p><p>Complete</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stark

**Author's Note:**

> It's happening! This is finally finished! 
> 
> Thanks to anonemone, rimahadley, and kamemor for beta-reading, and to everyone who encouraged me to keep going with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been slightly tweaked to make it work as the first chapter in this fic, rather than as a oneshot, so I recommend re-reading it. Enjoy!

They hadn’t found Barnes.

Tony didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. This was -

_ chest hurt left arm numb hard to breathe in out one two three four one two three four five six seven eight one two three four _

_ don’t freak out if you freak out it’s over if you freak out they die just breathe breathe breathe _

\- a shitshow.

The German police hadn’t found Barnes, he amended to himself. He had no idea if Steve and Sam had found Barnes and somehow kept him under the radar of all the force the UN, General Ross, and the German government had brought to bear. He’d been a little busy trying to get Ross to hold back on sending tactical strike teams after  _ Captain America  _ and the Falcon. 

As much of a shitshow as this was, he thinks as he opens the door to the heavily-secured Berlin apartment - conveniently located next to the UN, the usual location for visiting diplomats - it wasn’t as much of a shitshow as it would become as soon as somebody had Barnes in custody.

Still, he was here - someone had taken umbrage with his continued presence at about four in the morning, and very politely forced him to leave the couch he had taken up residence on in the undamaged portion of HQ. 

Something moves. 

Tony Stark is particularly attuned to the movement of metal, the whine of servos. It’s his work, his life’s blood, and, more often than not these days, him.

He hears it. He turns.

“Hi there,” he says with levity he doesn’t feel, starting to pull his gauntlet over his hand until the metal hand stops him.  


“Don’t,” says someone who looks like the Winter Soldier. Looks like James Buchanan Barnes.  


And oh god, Rhodey should be here. He can feel his chest spasm, his lungs frantically grasping for air. Rhodey had come back before him, and Tony knows from experience not to hold to notions that he would have  _ known  _ if Rhodey had - if something had happened to Rhodey. God, he should have just come back when Rhodey asked, he would have been here, why didn’t he  _ listen _ to Rhodey, nothing good ever happened when - and god if the Winter Soldier has - has - has left so much as a  _ scratch  _ on Rhodey he’ll -  


Tony’s hands are pinned to the table, and he can feel that the metal fingers pinning him could crush his hands in an instant, partially unfolded gauntlet and all.  


Amidst all the fear of the day, amidst the crushing fear that Rhodey might be - might be hurt, he won’t think of the other thing - as the metal of the gauntlet digs into his hand, he’s finally afraid for his own life. It’s almost funny.  


Barnes waits until Tony looks up, meets Tony’s eyes. “I didn’t do it.”  


“Okay. Okay, buddy.” Tony says, “Is - is there anyone else here?”  


Barnes blinks. “I just got here. I didn’t check the upstairs yet.”  


Oh god, Rhodey must still be asleep upstairs, and Tony’s eyes burn and his limbs shake with relief.  


“Okay. Okay, that’s good. That’s fine,” he says, trying to steady his breathing and focus on trying to keep the ex(?) Soviet/Hydra assassin calm while he tries to work out a Plan to a) get this arm off of his  _ hands _ and/or b) get out a signal to Rhodey or Friday or  _ someone. _  


Now Barnes is watching the stairs, and okay, this would be a really, really bad time for Rhodey to come down in his boxers to use the bathroom.  


As his breathing slows down, he finally registers something Barnes had said.  


“Can - can I ask -”  


Barnes is watching him now. Okay, good.  


“What didn’t you do? Just, little more specific than ‘it’ would be helpful.”  


“The bomb. At the UN. On the news,” Barnes says. “They were saying - it was me. But I don’t do that anymore.”  


“Alright. You don’t do that anymore. Copy that. Just,” Tony says, the voice inside his head that sounds like Pepper telling him that this is a Bad Idea, “not bombs specifically, or the whole covert assassination-slash-terrorism in general?”  


He can almost see Pepper covering her eyes, dragging her hand down to pinch the bridge of her nose.  


Barnes looks at him funny, like he wasn’t expecting that kind of smart-talk, not now. Hey, it wasn’t like they had ever been introduced, couldn’t blame the guy for not knowing that the smart-talk came with the Stark territory.  


(Though he - or someone with his name and face - had known his father. So maybe Barnes  _ should _ have known better. He didn’t need to dwell on it. Wouldn’t.)  


“None of it. I don’t kill people. Not - not anymore.”  


“I gotcha. No killing. That’s good, okay buddy?”  


“I didn’t do it.”  


“I believe you,” Tony says. He doesn’t know if it’s a lie. “Okay? We good?”  


“Are you going to try to kill me?”  


“Well,” Tony says. “I try not to do that either.”  


Barnes nods.  


“I -” Tony starts, knowing once again that this is a Bad Idea. “I can’t just let you go. Do you understand that?”  


“I didn’t do it,” Barnes says, and Tony’s stomach drops for a second. “But they think I did. It looked like me. And -” he says, not looking at Tony. “The stuff I did. Before.”  


“Yeah. Yeah.” Tony says. “I’m sorry.”  


“I don’t remember most of it.” He says. “I remember some - some stuff, before - before. And - I remember the faces. But - not why I did it. I don’t - I don’t remember years, or contexts. I don’t remember everything.”  


“Look,” Tony says, trying to keep Barnes calm. Trying to stay calm himself.  “If anyone’s got the right to throw stones about past - fuckups, it’s - its not me. Alright?”  


“You look like him,” Barnes says, finally looking up at Tony. “Howard.” He looks down again. “I think I might have killed him.”  


Tony’s vision goes white. He can’t think for a moment, then his legs give out under him and he looks up to see the gauntlet burned a hole through the table and all he can think is “they’re going to bill me for that.”  


“Hey, Hey.” Barnes is still holding him, metal hand around his wrists now, trying to drag him back to his feet.  


“Okay. S’okay. Just - just another panic attack. S’okay. Just. Just.” He tries to breathe, it comes out wheezing.  


“I’m sorry,” Barnes says.  “I didn’t - I don’t think I wanted to. It was a mission.”  


“A mission. Yeah. Yeah.” Tony heaves out. “Copy that.”  


He thinks he’s going to throw up. Throw up, or burn something else. He either needs the gauntlet off or he needs to kill Barnes. One or the other.  


He can feel metal digging into his skin as he starts to get back feeling in his arms and hands. He thinks the gauntlet might be broken - irreparably or not, he’s not sure. He’s not sure whether to be grateful for that or not.  


“I’m sorry,” Barnes says again, watching him carefully. “Are you okay?”  


_ Not even remotely.  _ “Always.”  


Barnes breathes. Tony starts to breathe again.  


“I - I want to come in. I want to - fix this. I thought - I thought you might be able to. Help,” Barnes says. “I see you, on the news. With - Steve. Captain Rogers.”  


“Yeah. Yeah, that’s right, buddy.” Tony says, still getting his breath back.  


Silence. Barnes still hasn’t let him go, metal fingers pressing into the flesh between the tendons of his wrist.  


“Does it hurt?”  


When Barnes looks confused, Tony looks down at the metal arm and raises his eyebrows.  


“I used to have - I used to have a big chunk out of my chest, right here,” he tilts his chin down as much as he can, pointing at his chest. “Big piece of - metal and electronics sitting right in the gap. It’d hurt sometimes. Not - not just around the edges, where it was sitting, though that hurt too, but - but right in the middle, where it was just - a reactor, a machine, where there was nothing I should be able to feel. Because something was supposed to be there, you know?” Tony breathes out. “And I just - I don’t know if your arm’s the same, or if they made it something you could feel, or -”  


“It hurts,” Barnes says, words tripping off his tongue like he wasn’t sure how they got there, and then he looks away abruptly.  


“Okay. Okay,” Tony says. “That may be something I can help with.”  



	2. Rhodes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James 'Rhodey' Rhodes enters, and Plans are made.

Rhodey wakes up to the sound of voices downstairs.

For a moment, he can’t remember where he is, why he isn’t in his bed at the Avengers compound. Once he takes in the room, he remembers - the shitshow at the UN, the hours waiting on news of Barnes, finally coming back here to the apartment when he realized that  _ someone _ would have to be close to functioning when Tony finally collapsed in there. 

It wasn’t great, but it was the best he could do. 

It’s definitely voices, plural, he thinks as he moves towards the staircase. One of them is definitely Tony, but he doesn’t recognize the other one. Male, so that rules out Tony talking to Friday, and he’s reasonably confident that Tony hasn’t been working on any new AI or AI voiceprints.

A stair creaks underfoot, and the voices stop. “Hey, Rhodey,” Tony says, a little above normal volume. “Weird day, huh? Reminds me of Phoenix.”

Okay, their last mission in Phoenix. So whoever was down there was dangerous but not immediately hostile. Tread carefully, don’t make yourself seem like a threat, but be ready for sudden changes. He can do that.

When he comes around the corner, he comes face to face with the Winter Soldier. 

“Okay,” Rhodey says.

“Rhodey, Barnes. Barnes, Rhodey,” Tony says, with a chagrined smile that says, yes, he is fully aware of how surreal this is. 

“Okay.” Rhodey walks very carefully, telegraphing all his movements, around the Winter Soldier. He takes in what looks like the remnants of Tony’s miniaturized gauntlet, and what looks like a towel wrapped around Tony’s left hand, and his throat tightens. Once he’s next to Tony, he pinches the bridge of his nose and uses the motion to rub at his eyes, wondering if this is all some very realistic stress-induced dream. “So we’ve got a terrorist over for breakfast?”

“I didn’t bomb the UN,” the Winter Soldier says.

“Okay,” Rhodey says. “Why come here?”

“I -” He hesitates. “I have to stop running sometime.”

Okay, well, the guy doesn’t seem to be actively trying to kill them. Okay. Think this through like someone who isn’t operating on two hours of sleep.

“Alright. Where were you when the bomb went off?”

He looks - a little surprised at the question, actually. “Bucharest.”

“Friday -” Tony says. 

“Already running all security camera footage in and around Bucharest around the time of the bombing against facial recognition for Mr. Barnes, boss.”

“Alright. Alright,” Tony says. Rhodey’s distracted by the scorch mark on the table and, okay, there was definitely a reason why Tony hadn’t started asking the basic questions earlier. 

“Your computer talks,” Barnes says.

“Yeah,” Tony says, “Barnes, Friday. Friday, Barnes.”

“Hydra had one of those. A talking computer,” Barnes says after a moment’s consideration.

“Of course they did.” Tony sighs. “Friday’s clean, though. Nothing to worry about.”

“Friday,” Rhodey says. 

“Yes, Colonel?”

“Can you run something else - no, two things.” He rubs at his forehead. “Can you run a trace on security footage of the UN bomber, based on the security footage they used to start hunting for Barnes? See where he came from, where he went.”

“Sure thing, Colonel. What’s the second one?”

He glances at Barnes. “Run a search for security footage on Barnes’ most likely path from Bucharest to here. Unless you wanna tell us how you got here?”

A holographic map floats up in front of Barnes, showing a region expanding between and around Bucharest and Berlin. “If it would be easier to indicate on a map, that would be helpful.” Friday tells him. 

Barnes, who’d initially flinched back at the sudden apparition, leans forward. “Woah,” he says, hushed, cautiously reaching out the fingers of his hand and waving them through the projection. Street intersections light up at his touch. He whistles. “Now that is something,” he says, and the clamps his mouth shut like he’s surprised to have said it. 

“That? That’s nothing. You should see what Friday and I can do when we’ve got a real set of holo-emitters in place.” 

Barnes keeps poking at the map, twisting himself around to look under it, then looks carefully at Tony as if to check to see if he’s upset by the move. “How does it work?” he asks, a gleam of curiosity - of happiness - more than Rhodey’s seen in him since he arrived.

Tony opens his mouth, with this look in his eyes that’s the same look he got when he wouldn’t stop fiddling with the potato gun mark 2 for the kid in Tennessee, and Rhodey knows Tony’s not letting go of this one, and this could be such a disaster but he can’t stop smiling because damn, the history books didn’t say Barnes was a nerd, and if he gets this excited around a holo-map, Rhodey would love to show him the lab at the Avengers Compound. 

(If he didn’t do it. If he’s innocent. If this isn’t even more of a disaster than it is already.) 

Of course, as soon as Tony opens his mouth, Friday - who is clearly the only one with sense in this room (if, strictly speaking, she can be said to ‘be’ in this room at all) and who knows them well enough to know that by the time they’ve finished talking and dissecting the miniature portable holoprojector at least an hour will have passed and the German police will probably have gotten into a shootout with Captain America and the Falcon by then - speaks up.

“Boss, I’ve got a hit.”

“Throw it up, Friday,” Tony says. 

It’s a quick clip, a crowded thoroughfare tagged with Bucharest and a timestamp that Rhodey recognizes as about twenty minutes after the UN bombing. He can’t pick Barnes out at first, but Friday slows the clip and zooms in, and yeah, that’s clearly Barnes, even the clothes, Rhodey notices, are the same as the ones he’s wearing now.

“I’ve also started to trace out footage of Mr. Barnes’ path to Berlin,” Friday adds, throwing up highlighted dots on the map with clips of security footage floating next to them. 

Barnes nods, and points silently at points further along on the path to Berlin for Friday to check.

Tony’s studying the original clip, from Bucharest. “Okay, so unless Barnes can be in two places at once - you can’t, can you? Okay - I think that’s pretty reasonable doubt right there.”

Tony looks at Rhodey, who nods. Yeah, the new footage could be faked, but first of all, they’d have to fool Friday, which would be a hell of a trick, and even then, in the choice between ‘someone tried to create a fake alibi for a legendary ex-Soviet assassin widely accepted to be responsible for bombing the UN and bet on someone taking the time to run it down in the right location through hours of footage’ and ‘someone tried to set up a legendary ex-Soviet assassin for the UN bombing and bet that he would be assumed guilty without further questions,’ Rhodey knew which one Occam’s Razor was telling him to pick.

“Friday, how are you doing on the UN footage?”

“Further analysis of the original footage confirms match with Mr. Barnes on facial recognition, however further analysis of body type and gait finds mismatch on at least five counts.” 

And Tony nods at that.

“Facial prosthesis?” Rhodey asks, only half a question.

“Facial prosthesis. And a pretty good one too.” 

“I’ve traced the bombers path back to a Berlin hotel relatively nearby,” Friday says, highlighting it on the map. “Searching the guest list for likely matches, boss, but it’ll take some time.”

“You did good, Friday,” Tony says. “This is - this is enough to take to the press. This’ll get us some leverage with Ross, enough to - enough.” 

Barnes is a little wide-eyed, like he’s still not quite believing that this is happening.

“What’s the next step?” Rhodey asks.

“Well,” Tony ticks it off on his fingers, “We’ve got a WWII supersoldier and his ex-pararescue buddy searching for Barnes. We’ve got German police also searching for Barnes, and I talked Ross down off sending squads to find Cap and Wilson specifically but they’re not _not_ looking for them and they’re probably a little trigger happy because they’ve got -” Tony looks at Barnes, quickly skips over the shoot to kill order that is out on him. “- hey, everyone’s on edge. We’ve got - we’ve got Ross, who, let’s be honest, would be perfectly happy to see all three of them dead. We’ve got the remaining members of the UN and the whole international community outraged over the bombing and convinced that the ‘Winter Soldier’ is responsible. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget nobody trusts us because a kid who can move stuff with her mind accidentally blew up a building in Nigeria, and the only reason no one’s screaming about that _right this second_ is that she’s out of sight at the Avengers compound hanging out with a sentient robot who we brought to life with a gem from outer space.”

“Don’t forget the new King of Wakanda,” Rhodey adds. “As far as I can tell, T’challa’s ready to kill Barnes personally.” Rhodey looks at Barnes with an apologetic shrug.

“Right. Can’t forget that guy.” Tony thinks for a moment, then sighs. “His dad’s dead - we - we gotta give him -” He shakes his head.

“I’m sorry,” Barnes says, and hits Rhodey so strongly in that moment how  _ young  _ he is _. _ God, he can’t even have hit thirty. When did he get so old, Rhodey wonders, that twenty-something’s looked so young to him. When did they both get old? They had been that young themselves, once. Even so, it’s hard to see the threat when he’s sitting in a kitchen chair in a hoodie and he just looks sad, and you can’t see the metal of the arm or the deadly  _ power _ Rhodey’s seen on security footage of DC.

“Hey, it’s nothing, kid,” Tony says, “Not - not your fault. I’ve dug myself out of worse PR disasters than this. There was - there was the time I shut down all the weapons manufacturing at my weapons company, the time I publicly announced I was a superhero, the time I threatened a terrorist -”

Barnes looks at him flatly, unimpressed, and damn, he knows that look. He’s used that look on Tony before (and its relative, the look that was trying to be unimpressed and failing because Tony was actually being funny despite how much Rhodey might like to pretend otherwise) and, oh god, was this what he was like with Rogers, back in New York decades ago? Because he would have paid to see that. 

(He also tries hard not to think about how every other time Tony’s dug himself from out of a PR disaster, Pepper had been there. And he tries very, very hard not to think about how much more this is than a ‘PR disaster’.)

“Yeah, you’re right,” Tony says, to Barnes’ unimpressed face. “This is worse. Okay. Friday?” Tony continues. “I’m gonna need you to call Jennifer and get her on this side of the Atlantic as soon as physically possible - and if you need to bend a few laws of physics, go for it.”

“Got it, boss.”

Barnes tenses at the mention of another person, and Tony doesn’t miss it. 

Tony swivels to Barnes. “Right - Jennifer’s a lawyer. You’ll like her. She’s the best of the best. I trust her. She’ll get this sorted. Now,” Tony continues, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We just got to make sure there’s enough pressure on Ross to let her into a room with you, because he’s not going to do it out of the goodness of his heart.”

“Yeah, and how do we do that, exactly?” Rhodey says.    


“We bring in the guys bigger than Ross,” Tony says, and oh god, if it turns out Tony’s had a line to the Hulk this whole time - “We gotta get the United Nations to change their minds,” and Rhodey breathes a sigh of relief that Tony is speaking  _ metaphorically _ , thank god. “We gotta get the President leaning on him - hey -” He adds, looking up at Rhodey. “You saved the President’s life. He’s gotta take your call, right?”

“Tony, if that’s the extent of your plan -”

“We gotta get the public,” Tony says. “We gotta get public opinion on our side. We gotta get enough people angry that they’re gonna lock this guy up without a trial that they’re calling their Senators, they’re calling their Representatives, they’re calling their - Parlimentarians, or whatever. I want Cregg over in the West Wing to be flipping her shit over this. Enough outcry, and the President will rein Ross in. Insist on a trial.  It’s,” he says, finally taking a breath, “A public perception problem, when it comes down to it. And I’ve got -” he adds, smiling wryly and with no small amount of chagrin, “some experience in that area.”

And, okay, definitely not bringing up that the time he threatened a terrorist was on  _ national television _ . At least, not in front of Barnes.

“We’re going to have this footage from Bucharest on every network, nonstop, timestamped, right up against the footage from Berlin, and every error on the Berlin footage is going to be lit up in flashing neon -”

“Already working on it, sir,”

“Thanks, Friday, - we’re going to remind them that he came in voluntarily, we’re going to remind them that this is James Buchanan Barnes, that he’s an American, that he served his country, that -” He snaps his fingers. “James Buchanan Barnes. America’s longest serving POW. That’s the sound bite, right there.” 

Barnes fidgets, doesn’t look at Tony. Tony doesn’t seem to notice. 

“I mean, for crying out loud, this guy was  _ Captain America’s  _ sidekick - oh,  _ fuck.” _

“Tony?”

“We need to call Steve. We need to - we need to get him to come in.”

Rhodey watches Barnes, who isn’t looking at either of them now.

“Tony…” Rhodey says, still watching Barnes, trying to pick his words carefully. “Don’t you think if we call him - before we - get things worked out, he might -”

“Do something stupid? Yeah,” Tony says. “But the longer we wait to call him in, the more likely he and Wilson get into a shootout with the German police, and that - that doesn’t end well for anybody.” Tony rubs at his chest, and Rhodey wonders if he’d gotten any sleep at all. “At least if he runs in here, we can -” And he waves his arm vaguely, like he’s not sure whether he means ‘stop him’ or ‘help him.’ 

Rhodey sighs. “I’ll call Nat. I’ve got a funny feeling that if anyone can figure out how to get in touch with Steve and Sam, she can.” 

“Fair,” Tony says, tilting his head and shrugging. Rhodey looks between Barnes and Tony, watching for any signs that things are about to go wrong, before stepping over to the stairwell to make the call - keeping the two of them in his line of sight, but just far enough away that if he kept his voice down, he didn’t have to be overheard. 

“James,” Natasha says after the first ring. “Please tell me you have good news.”

“We’ve got Barnes.” And he hears Nat’s voice hiss on her inhale. “Nobody’s hurt, he came in voluntarily, and Nat, we’ve got some pretty compelling evidence suggesting that he didn’t bomb the UN.”

“You’re saying he was set up?”

“Yeah. I - we think so.”

“He came in voluntarily.”

“I swear to god, Nat, yes, he did.”

“Where are you now?”

“I am standing in the stairwell of Tony’s apartment, watching him talk to a ninety-something year old ex-Hydra assassin about god knows what, and Nat, you gotta call Steve. If he and Sam keep running around Berlin, they’re gonna run into the police if they haven’t already -”

“James, if he’s innocent -”

“Tony - Tony and I are dealing with that.”

“I’m sorry,  _ Tony _ ’s dealing with it?” She questions, skeptical.

“Yes. He is,” Rhodey says, and sighs. “Look just - please, call Steve, tell him to - to lay low. Just - play tourist for a bit. This doesn’t need to end in a firefight”

Natasha hesitates. “He’s going to want proof.”

Rhodey tries to keep himself from groaning. “Then tell him to  _ call me _ . Damn, I’ll send him a  _ photograph  _ of Barnes and Tony hanging out if he needs it. Just get him and Sam back on the reservation before Tony has a damn heart attack, please.”

He can hear Natasha breathing on the end of the phone. “I’ll tell him to call.”

“ _ Thank you. _ ”

“Rhodes,” She says. “If this is some - if this is something Tony’s pulling because he’s -”

“Seriously. You think he’d -?”

“People do stupid things when they’re desperate.”

“Yeah, well, I think the time to do that would have been  _ before _ Tony had to talk Ross down from ordering strike teams after Rogers and Wilson, so can you please just - trust me for five minutes, okay?”

“Yeah,” she says, “Yeah, of course, sorry, James.”

“You know what they say about old habits,” he says, but he says it with fondness, and he almost imagines he hears her smile on the other end of the line.

“You know you’re going to have the new King of Wakanda to deal with.”

“Oh, believe me, I know,” Rhodey says. “Tony’s got a plan.”

“Is it a  _ good _ plan?”

“Well, no one’s exactly offering up a whole lot of alternatives,” Rhodey says.

“James.”

“I think we’ve got a chance. Better odds than some of our past plans.”

“We’ve had some pretty bad plans in the past.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I can call you when you should tune into the news.”

“You sure you don’t want me to come there?”

“I think - I think we’ve got it under control. I don’t want to make things look any fishier than they already are.”

“You’ll call me before you bring him in?”

“Yeah. You’ll call Steve?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Listen, James? Good luck.”

“Thanks. We’re gonna need it.”

She hangs up the phone. He holds onto it for a moment, takes a moment to breathe. Okay. There’s an ex-Hydra assassin in their kitchen, but they have a plan. They have a plan. 

Okay.

“-and you’re sure I can’t convince you on the haircut?” Tony’s asking as he walks back into the room

Barnes just looks at him, flatly.

“Okay, so that’s a no.”

“Good call,” Rhodey says. “I don’t think Tony even shaves himself. I wouldn’t trust him with someone else’s hair”

Tony points a finger at Rhodey for optimum drama. “ _ Traitor. _ ”

Rhodey grins.

“Anyway,” Tony adds.  “You don’t have to go for the haircut. I hear the whole man-bun thing is very in style these days - ”

Barnes squints at him. “The  _ what _ ?”

Rhodey snorts.  

Then his phone rings.

“That was fast,” Rhodey mutters, and he doesn’t miss the way Barnes has tensed at the sound.

“Rhodes.”

“He’s with you?”

“Yeah, Steve, he’s  _ fine - _ ”

“Nat said you think he’s innocent.”

“There’s footage of him in Bucharest, 600 miles away 20 minutes after the bombing. We have reason to believe the footage at the bomb site was faked. He was set up.”

He can hear Steve take a deep breath at the other end of the line.  “How is he?”

“He’s - he’s good, Steve. Honestly, if someone had told me an ex-Hydra assassin was gonna be in my kitchen this morning, I wouldn’t have expected this kid.” He leans back to listen to Tony, who’s resumed his conversation with Barnes - probably to distract him from the phone call. “Tony’s heckling him about his hair.”

That seems to set Steve off-kilter. “What? Why?”

“We’re bringing him in in - I’m not sure, probably less than half an hour. Tony wants to make sure the press and the public are on Barnes’ side -”

“I thought you said you thought he was innocent?” Steve says, accusatory. 

Rhodey sighs. “We  _ do _ , but we don’t get to be the arbiters on that. We’re hoping if we can get public opinion swayed there’ll be enough political pressure to get Barnes a trial.”

“To get -”

“ _ I know _ , but I don’t know if you noticed, we don’t have a lot of leverage here.” 

“I want to see him.”

Rhodey sighs. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen right now.”

“What?”

“Look, I know you missed Tony talking Ross out of going after you with half the German police force, but I don’t think it should come as a surprise that you’re not exactly in Ross’s good books right now. Just - just let us deal with one political fight at a time, okay? Lay low, play tourist, and we’ll bring you in as soon as we’ve got Barnes with Tony’s lawyer.”

Steve inhales, a hissing breath through clenched teeth. “I don’t know if that’s a promise I can make.”

“Jesus,” Rhodey says, “Steve -”

“You can’t even guarantee him a  _ trial - _ ”

“What, and you think having numbers two and three on the UN’s shit list on the scene is going to make that any  _ easier? _ ” 

Steve takes a deep breath. “Why bring him in at all? Why not wait until you’ve got the lawyer, make Ross promise a trial?”

“And when Ross calls our bluff and the German police and the King of Wakanda come knocking on our door we do what? Suit up and go Rambo on their asses? Yeah, let’s see how well that goes,” Rhodey takes a deep breath. “Jennifer’s another 7 hours away at  _ best,  _ and we’re pushing it even waiting as long as we have. I’m half expecting the a bunch of German police officers to ram down our front door any second and arrest us for harboring a  _ wanted criminal _ , Steve, we just - we don’t get to set terms and conditions for bringing in a guy who, as far as everybody else is concerned, blew up the UN and killed a  _ King,  _ for chrissakes.”

“Not even when he’s been set up?” Steve says, his voice packed with outraged disbelief.

“Look,” Rhodey says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “ _ We’re doing our best _ , I swear to god, Steve. I know this -” and he finds himself suddenly unsure of tenses. “- is your friend, and honestly, when he started getting excited about the holoprojections, I thought Tony was going to start drawing up adoption papers right then and there. And even if he wasn’t,” Rhodey continues, ignoring Tony’s mock-offended “Hey!” in the background. “Knowing what we know, it’s the right thing to do, and just - look, he came in voluntarily, he knows this is the plan, we’re not fucking holding him here like -”

“Why?” Steve asks, and oh, there’s the hurt. “Why come to you?”

He wishes he had the time to be patient, really, he does. 

He also wishes he had slept more than four hours out of the past thirty-six. 

“For god’s sake, Steve, I think he’s actually trying to take some goddamned responsibility.”

“For something he didn’t do?”

“Hey,” and Rhodey turns to see Barnes. “I’ll talk to him.” Barnes says, hollow voiced in a way Rhodey wouldn’t have expected at that particular prospect. 

“Yeah. Yeah, Okay,” Rhodey says. “Barnes wants to talk to you.”

“I - okay,” Steve says, and Rhodey hands the phone over to Barnes. 

Barnes says “Hello,” and then listens to the phone for a moment, before answering. “You’re Steve,” Barnes says, ducking his head, then, after a pause, “I pulled you out of the river,” he says, and it looks like the words have to be pulled out of him. 

Tony leans over to Rhodey and mutters, “So that sounded like a fun conversation.”

Rhodey sighs. “I wish this wasn’t -”

“Such a clusterfuck? Yeah, I know.”

“Steve’s not wrong. This isn’t fair to him.”

“I know,” Tony says. “I - I know.”  

Rhodey reaches over, takes Tony’s hand and squeezes it. “You’re doing good.”

Tony sighs and drops his head on Rhodey’s shoulder. “It doesn’t feel like it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Rhodey says, reaching up and running his other hand through Tony’s hair. 

“So what are the odds on us having to wrestle Steve away from a drag-down fight with Ross before we can get Jennifer in with Barnes?”

Rhodey tilts his head towards Barnes. “I’d say that depends a lot on how  _ this  _ conversation goes.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Tony says, voice muffled from against his shoulder.

“What’s her ETA?”

“Seven hours and change. Unless you invented teleportation in your spare time?”

“Yeah, don’t know how I didn’t get around to that.”

“I know, I’m kicking myself for not having invented it already, too.”

“We should really get on that,” Rhodey says, smiling.

He leans his head down to rest on Tony’s as they pause and listen to Barnes’ end of the conversation with Steve.

Barnes is listening to the phone.

“I don’t, they’d never catch the guy who set me up. The guy who bombed the place.” He pauses, sighs. “I gotta stop running sometime. The only way that happens is if I do this right. And -” He stops, takes a breath. “It’s the only way everyone gets answers.” Just for a second, he glances at Tony. “I know they won’t be good ones.”

Barnes pauses, listens. 

“Yeah. Yeah,” Barnes says, pauses. “Yeah. You have -” he continues, “- a good team. Good friends,” he says, pronouncing the word carefully, like it’s new and foreign.

And Rhodey can’t hear what Steve says at the other end of the line, but he can’t help but feel a surge of affection for Barnes. 

“Me too,” Barnes says. “Yeah, yeah, okay.” Rhodey steels himself to get back on the line, as the conversation sounds as though it is wrapping up. “Okay.” He pauses. “Yeah.” 

He hands the phone back to Rhodey, who tries to smile reassuringly.

“We good?” Rhodey says into the phone. 

Steve sighs. “This is shitty and you know it.”

“Yeah, I do,” Rhodey says. “You gonna lay low?”

“Yeah,” Steve says, with no small amount of resentment.

Barnes is talking quietly to Tony over in the corner, Rhodey notes.

“Want us to call you before we bring him in?” Rhodey asks.

Steve pauses, Rhodey listens to him breathe on the other end of the line. “Can we give him an earpiece? Wire the team up, so that we - so he has a way to get help if you get separated?”

And, okay, that’s actually a good idea, he’s almost annoyed with himself for not having thought of it first, but he still has to ask, “I don’t know, can you promise not to smash up the UN building the first time you hear something you think sounds like trouble?”

“Smashing’s the Hulk’s job,” Steve says, and Rhodey can almost hear the grin from the other end of the line.

“Steve -”

“We give the team a codeword. Bucky included. Any of us can use it when - if shit goes sideways and we need backup.”

“Alright. What’s the code word?”

Steve thinks for a moment.“How about ‘Assemble’?”

Rhodey grins, the expression creeping out against his own inclination. Steve may be a pain in the ass right now, but he’s still a dork. “Assemble. Okay. You guys still got your earpieces?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we got ‘em.”

“You’ll call Natasha, loop her in?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Alright. We’ll text you the frequency when it’s set up. We’ll still be able to reach you at this number?”

“Yeah.”

Rhodey grins, “If your old brain gets too confused by the texting, just ask Sam for help, alright?”

Steve laughs, “You need to spend less time with Tony.”

“Not in a million years,” Rhodey says, half laughing. “We good?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Steve says. “Take care of him, okay?”

“Of course,” Rhodey says.

“Okay,” Steve says, and Rhodey hears the click at the end of the line. 

“How’re we doing?” Tony says, trying to sound nonchalant and failing.

“He’s gonna lay low. But he wants to wire up the team, including Barnes, and he’s got a codeword for us all to use in case things go sideways.” Tony looks thoughtful. “It’s actually not a bad idea.”

“No, no, I’m just -”

“Frustrated you didn’t come up with it beforehand. I know. Same.”

“Well, yes, that, but I can’t help wondering if whether this is Cap pulling in old war-buddy system stuff, or if Wilson’s had to teach Captain Spangles what a safe-word is.”

“For the record, you said it, not me,” Rhodey says. Barnes snorts, and then gives that same look, like he’s surprised at himself. 

“Well, we can do that, I’ve got extra earpieces stashed somewhere - are we using -”

“- we’re gonna text him the frequency. Probably best -”

“- not to use one of our go-to’s, right, I can reposition - yeah. And -” Tony waves his hand in a vague ‘what am I missing’ gesture.”

“Steve will call Natasha and loop her in. We’re supposed to get in touch with her before we bring him in.” 

“Yeah. Yeah, okay, we can do that.”

Barnes is watching them with an - odd expression. Rhodey could almost call it nostalgic. 

“And the code word is ‘Assemble.’”

Tony snorts. “Of course. Okay, comms, we gotta find -” Tony steps towards Barnes, holds out his arms like he’s holding an invisible measuring tape. “Yeah, okay, all our suits are going to be at least a couple inches short on you, that’s sub-optimal but we can work with it. Sourpatch, can you check the drawers, see if we’ve got, like, a rubber-band or something?”

Tony’s talking even faster than usual, so he’s building towards something else. Rhodey shoots off the rubber band at him anyway. 

“Thanks, Platypus.” Tony hands off the rubber band to Barnes. “Give it a try?”

Barnes rolls his eyes and ties his hair up into a quick bun, leaving a few strands down to shield his face.

“Okay, first of all, you’ve definitely done that before, second of all, look at him,” Tony turns and looks at Rhodey, waving a hand at the kid.  “Heartbreaker. I called it.”

That makes Barnes crack a half-disbelieving smile, and Rhodey snorts, because of course, trust Tony to take an ex-Hydra assassin and act like a proud parent on prom night.

(They are so screwed.)

“What else’ve we got?”

Tony is fidgeting, and okay, he’s definitely been building to something. “I’ve got - I’ve got one more thing. It’s a maybe thing. Just a ‘toss out there, there are no stupid ideas’ kinda thing.”

Barnes looks up. 

“Here’s the thing,” Tony starts, “and - don’t freak out when I suggest this, okay, you’ve got full veto power on this -” Tony sucks in a deep breath. “I think we might want to ditch the arm.”

It’s a horrifying idea, and Tony seems fully aware of that - not surprising, given that he’s Tony and living with machinery as part of you is far from foreign to him - but Rhodey understands his train of thought immediately. The metal arm with the red star is the symbol of the Winter Soldier that most people know, that they’ve seen from footage from DC, if they’ve seen anything. Without it - 

“Look, this is your decision, this is your arm, I -” Tony stops, realizing that he’s started rubbing at the scars on his chest. He drops his hand. “I wouldn’t even suggest it but - it’s an easy reminder to people that you’re a - you’re dangerous. Even though it doesn’t  _ make _ you dangerous, and even though quite frankly, I’m sure you can be dangerous without it, it - people are just, stupid, sometimes, that way.” 

Barnes is quiet. 

“Sorry - I shouldn’t have even brought it up.” Tony looks away, looks at Rhodey, who doesn’t have any reassurance to offer, “I should - anyway, we can just -”

“It’s like your armor,” Barnes says, and they both look at him. “Both of yours. They think it’s what makes you dangerous, but it’s not.”

And Tony looks at Rhodey, a little wide eyed, a little gleeful, like  _ holy shit, can you believe this kid?  _ And oh, they are so, so screwed.

“Yeah,” Rhodey says to Barnes, “Yeah, a little like that.”

Barnes nods.

“I don’t even know if it’s possible, with what we have here, or feasible in - well, under time constraints, but it’s worth at least taking a look - I mean, whatever you decide, it’s worth taking a look, just to know Hydra didn’t put any nasty traps in there, and - and if we can at least get an idea why it’s hurting you, if there’s anything we can do now, I promise, we will. Even if you still want to keep it. Which, I totally understand if you do and it’s -”

Rhodey puts a hand on Tony’s shoulder, trying to get him to slow down. “How about we just start by taking a look? Would that be okay?”

“It’s easy,” Tony adds quickly.  “Friday’ll just scan it. We’ve got some halfway decent scanners here, it’s totally non-invasive. Painless.”

Barnes looks at the hologram Friday’s projected of the streets and the footage.

Tony smiles, a little chagrined. “Kid, if we all get out of this alive, I promise you, I’ll explain how all this works. Hell, you’ll get an entire crash course in Stark Engineering,” Tony says. 

Barnes nods. “Okay.”

“Okay to the scan, or the crash course?” Rhodey asks carefully.

Tony adds. “Or both? Both is good.”

Barnes looks at them carefully - pauses, thinks. “Both, I think.”

“Okay,” Rhodey says.

“C’mon, Rhodey, I know I stashed scanners upstairs.”

He’s about to suggest that one of them stay here with Barnes, but Tony shoots him a Look and he knows that it’s important that they go together. 

“Yeah, okay. Back in a minute, Barnes.”

Barnes nods, and Rhodey follows Tony up the stairs.

Once they’re upstairs in the bedroom, Rhodey asks, “What’s going on?” 

Tony hesitates, breathing deeply and sharply. “I need to tell you - I just - I -”

“Tony?” Rhodey asks, because the change from the Tony of two minutes ago down in the kitchen is scaring him. 

Tony takes a deep breath, in, then out. “He killed my parents,” he says, flatly.

“ _ Tony _ ,” Rhodey breathes, because god, what do you say to that?

“I mean, I think he killed my parents. He -” Tony stutters. “He mentioned that he thought - he thought he remembered killing Howard. He said he thought I looked like him and he thought he remembered killing him and I,” Tony says, and his breathing’s faster now. “I kinda - freaked out.” 

“Tones -” Tony watches him, wide eyed, looking almost as young as the twenty-one year old Tony Stark on the Christmas of 1991. Rhodey reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to hold him together like he did then, and Tony reaches up and grabs onto it like it’s a lifeline. “Are you - are you gonna be okay?”

Tony breathes, in and out, in and out. “I - as long as we keep having - as long as we’re still  _ doing  _ things down there, as long as we’ve got - problems to solve, and my brain - I’m fine, except - when I stop for a second I look at him and I think - is that the last face my mom saw? And - I just -” Tony takes a deep breath, in, and out. “I need you to know. Just -”

“Yeah. I know.” He holds on tight to Tony’s shoulder, not wanting him to finish the sentence. “I got you, okay? We’re gonna get through this.” Tony is silent for a moment, and Rhodey reaches out with both hands and pulls him to his chest, hugging him tight.

Tony reaches up and clutches at his shirt, and Rhodey can feel him shaking “Yeah. Yeah, okay,” he says, his forehead bumping against Rhodey’s chest as he nods. 

“...love you.” Tony mumbles softly into Rhodey’s shirt.

Rhodey leans down and kisses the top of Tony’s head, “Love you too.” 

He stands for a few moments, just listening to Tony breathe, and thinks about every measure Tony is taking to defend the man downstairs, who left twenty-one year old Tony Stark broken and scared on Rhodey’s doorstep in the middle of winter. Wonders how long Tony can keep carving his heart out to try and do the right thing.

He remembers a quote from one of his favorite novels.  _ “If that’s what you’re willing to do for someone you hate, what would you do for someone you loved?” _

But of course, he already knows the answer to that one.

“You want to stay up here for a bit?” Rhodey asks.

“No,” Tony says, slowly unclenching his hands from Rhodey’s shirt. “No, we should - we should get this done.”

“Okay,” he says, kissing Tony’s forehead one more time before letting go. Tony smiles up at him, and Rhodey’s grateful that it’s not his ‘press smile’ - not yet.

“Thanks, Rhodeybear.” 

And Rhodey smiles back, before looking down at Tony’s left hand, where the dishcloth has fallen away. “What happened?” He asks, because those are bruises, and blood from cuts that haven’t fully scabbed over. 

“It’s fine, really, it’s nothing,” Tony says. “The new miniaturized gauntlet isn’t as sturdy as it needs to be, obviously.”

“Barnes crushed the gauntlet?”

Tony nods. “Whatever the metal arm is made of, it’s something tough.” Tony jabs at his hand. “Probably for the best. Might have done something stupid if he hadn’t broken it.”

“ _ Tony _ ,” Rhodey says, and he can’t help but think that ‘something stupid’ means ‘try to kill Barnes.’

“It’s alright. Really, Rhodey. It’s nothing. Doesn’t even hurt.”

He knows full well that Tony’s definition of pain has been skewed for - well. So he says, “Yeah, and you’re not that kind of doctor, so let’s fix it up anyway.” 

“I’ll have you know I am many different kinds of doctor,” Tony says as Rhodey pulls out the first aid kit stashed under the bed 

“Any of them in medicine?” 

“Look, once you’ve worked on as much biotechnology as I have -”

“Yeah, you’re not Helen,” he says, and takes Tony’s hand.

“Remind me what  _ your _ degree is in, Colonel Weapons Expert?”

“Oh, shut up,” Rhodey says, smiling as he puts antiseptic on Tony’s hand and wraps it. 

“Okay, if you’re done babying me,” Tony says, “can we maybe not leave the former assassin unattended for too much longer?”

“Let’s get those scanners. And I bet I can find a halfway-fitting suit in here somewhere. Also,” he says, looking down at his own t-shirt and boxer shorts, “I should probably actually get dressed.”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure if you ditched the shirt the news footage would pick up some serious ratings numbers.”

Rhodey elbows him, grinning, glad, at least, that even though the bandages were only temporary, there was still nothing that could kill the Tony joke reflex.

“Your disregard for public opinion is killing me here, Honeybear.” 

Rhodey leans over, kisses him on the cheek. “Your adoring public will just have to live with me in my dress uniform.”

Tony tilts his head, considering. “I think our adoring public can live with that,” he says. “I’ll grab the earpieces. And another gauntlet, if Barnes can resist the urge to crush this one.”

Rhodey smiles grimly as he turns to the wardrobe to pick up the scanners, and then to sort through the hangers for the tallest suit he could find. “Pity the kid’s so much taller than you.”

“Taller than you too,” Tony says while he pulls out a gauntlet from the drawers and snaps it on. 

Laying a slightly taller suit on the bed, Rhodey turns back to the wardrobe, taking out his dress uniform and pulling on his pants and shirt. He turns around to look at Tony as he pulls on his dress jacket. 

Tony’s smirking at him, and he can’t help but grin back. 

“Give me a hand?” Rhodey asks.

Tony sets the earpieces down on the night stand and walks over to stand toe to toe with him. He reaches out and starts buttoning up Rhodey’s jacket.

“You’re doing the right thing,” He says to Tony, as Tony gets halfway up the buttons on Rhodey’s jacket. 

“I -” Tony starts, his hands freezing up on the buttons. “Yeah. I - thanks.” He looks up at Rhodey as he finishes the last few buttons. “It - helps to hear you say it.”

Rhodey leans forward and kisses him in answer.

When they make their way back downstairs, Friday is displaying a schematic of one of the scanners for Barnes. He looks up as they walk down.

“Friday, I see you got started on the engineering lesson early,” Tony says. “We’ve got the real deal right here.” He holds out one of the scanners, before plunking it down on the table next to Barnes. “Alright, Friday, can you get a scan of Barnes’ arm?” 

“Not the best equipment here, boss, but -”

“But you can do it, right?”

“What do you take me for?” Friday says, and an image of the arm is projected with floating stats next to it. 

Tony reads.

Tony swears.

“This is - this is -” He waves a hand at the diagram inarticulately. “This - this violates the -   _ something.  _ Putting this on a person - cruel and unusual’s one word for it.”

Rhodey looks over his shoulder, runs some numbers in his head, and feels his stomach drop. 

“I mean, all that time Hydra was inside SHIELD, looking at all their files, you think they’d have at least  _ glanced _ at  _ one _ of my papers on ultralight titanium-gold alloys - or brain machine interfaces - or -”

“Tony,” Rhodey says, and Tony sighs.

“It’s no wonder your arm hurts, kid. Hydra’s clearly got a bunch of lousy engineers, and I’m surprised this thing hasn’t taken your whole shoulder off with it. Fortunately, we are  _ not  _ lousy engineers,” he adds, pointing at himself and Rhodey. “And we’ve got a friend who’s the world’s leading expert in biosynthetics, so when this is all sorted we’re gonna get you something that makes this look like a cheap piece of Soviet crap. Which. I mean. Is what it is.”

“Tony,” Rhodey says. “Look at -” 

“Oh,  _ fuck _ , you’re right. There’s another one. Shit, did they just -”

“Layer them on top of each other as people lost track of the old controls? Yeah, I think so.”

“Fuckers.” And Rhodey feels it with him, the desire to go back and burn down every Hydra base again, with twice the violence.

Barnes is looking increasingly - well, not concerned, but edgy. Nervous.

“It’s all right - we’ll fix it,” Rhodey says, before Tony continues.

“Hydra, in its various incarnations, seems to have put a kill switch in your arm, forgotten the control mechanism, put another kill switch in, ad nauseum - well, only about four times, actually, but still. Jesus. Pepper complains - complained about  _ my  _ record keeping.”

“Tony.”

“Yeah, yeah - What do you think, if we get in there with -”

“Too much risk of it damaging the plates and setting something else off. What about -”

“Oh yeah, yeah, you’re right, that would work.”

“I think we can shut them off,” Rhodey says, to Barnes. 

Tony nods. “Not that it’s likely anyone remembers how to use them. But, you know, for peace of mind and all that.”

“What about,” Barnes has been watching them both very carefully, and starts, slow and halting, “What about - taking it off?”

Tony looks at Rhodey, then back at the arm. “Hmm. Well -” He flicks his wrist and rotates the image around. “Well, this connects - here, and -”

“Tony,” Rhodey says, and hates himself a little. “I think we need to be looking for a backdoor. Something simpler.”

Tony swears, takes a breath. “You’re right. Friday, can you run it through -”

“Already checking.” Within moments, a holographic hand floats by and adjusts a sequence of panels that causes the holo-arm to detach just below the shoulder. “This motion does not affect any of the kill-switches present.”

Of course. Because Hydra would want a range of options to deal with their ‘asset’.

God, after this mess, he’s going to tear through the last Hydra bases they find like they’re tissue paper. 

“Okay. Yeah. We can do that.” Tony fidgets with his hands, looks at Barnes. “What do you think?”

Barnes is silent for a few moments, and Tony barrels on.

“It’s shitty, and it’s stupid,” and Rhodey knows that the conversations with Steve, even secondhand, are getting to him, “- and you - you shouldn’t even have to think about it, because it shouldn’t matter what you look like going into this, what matters is - but it does, because people are stupid, and so we just - you just put on your best suit and go out there and  _ smile _ ,” he says, with a bitterness that tells Rhodey instantly that it’s a line - an  _ order - _ Tony’s heard more than once from Howard and Obadiah. “And,” he continues, more gently, still determined, “we try and get you through this alive, and - and we fix the rest later, yeah?”

Barnes is silent. Rhodey takes Tony’s wrist, lightly, trying to tell him to give Barnes a minute to think without interruption.

“I don’t know if I’m worth all this,” Barnes says. “What about - the rest of it? I didn’t do this but. The rest of it I. I did. I just,” Barnes continues, looking at Tony, and oh, god, Tony. Rhodey slips his hand down from his wrist, takes Tony’s hand and feels Tony tighten his fingers, holding on. 

“I don’t know if I’m worth all this,” Barnes repeats.

Tony blinks at him, loosening his grip on Rhodey’s hand slightly. “What did you think we were going to do when you came  _ here _ ? Let them put you in a cell and throw away the key?”

Barnes looks at him.

“Look, kid,” Tony says, “We’ll - we’ll deal with this first and then. Everything else - we’re going to get the truth. We’re going to make sure - we’re going to make sure that you - that everyone gets the truth. The real truth, I mean. Not just -” He shakes his head. “Friday, start -” Tony stutters, “Start calling, god, are there experts in this? Any experts in - POW recovery, and - and torture, and - any legal experts on - whatever the closest normal equivalent to Hydra brainwashing is. Start - start the search on the Hydra files Romanoff dumped, see what there is that we could have missed.”

Barnes is still looking down, watching the floor. 

“Look, Barnes,” Tony says, “I built weapons. They got into the hands of some bad people. They hurt people. People I didn’t mean to get hurt. I -”

“But you stopped.” Barnes says. “I watched - I watched recordings of the press conferences. Afterward. I wanted to learn about -” He closes his mouth abruptly.

“You stopped, too,” Tony says. “The first - the first opportunity you had, you stopped.”

“I -” Barnes shakes his head. It doesn’t seem like he can look at them. “You don’t know that. I should have -”

“You should have known sooner. You should have stopped sooner. You should have been smarter or stronger or better or - listen, I know. Thinking - thinking like that will only tear you apart. Believe me. And, look,” Tony starts. “I’m not - I’m not trying to say it’s a perfect analogy here but. What matters is you stopped. You’re trying - you’re trying to take responsibility and. I’m just - I’m trying to say I - I understand. A little bit.”

“It doesn’t go away.”

“No. It doesn’t,” Tony says. “But you keep doing better. Not because it makes it go away, just.”

“Because that’s what you have to do.” 

“Yeah. Yeah.”

(Rhodey doesn’t think he could love him any more.)

Barnes nods at Tony’s acknowledgement. “I thought - I thought you might understand,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

Tony smiles weakly. “I know.”

“I think,” Barnes says, slowly, carefully. “I think you should take the arm off.”

“You’re sure?

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Tony squeezes Rhodey’s hand, then lets go to sit down next to Barnes. Rhodey pulls up another chair. “Tell me if anything hurts, alright?” Which, well, pretty rich coming from Tony, master of the ‘fake it till you make it’ method of pain management, but. God, Rhodey loves him. 

Barnes nods, and Rhodey helps hold Barnes’ arm steady as Tony carefully adjusts the plates in the right sequence.

“How am I doing, Friday?” 

Blue holo lines flash as guidance. “Doing alright, boss,” Friday says, only a few seconds before Rhodey and Tony are suddenly holding the full weight of Barnes’ arm in their hands. 

They both, well. Stare at it for a minute. It’s  _ heavy,  _ hell, he knew that from the specs but. Damn. 

“Okay. Okay. Good. How’s that feel?”

“Lighter,” Barnes says, twisting in his chair to get a sense of motion. Rhodey can’t help but let out a quick huff of laughter.

“It’s just temporary. We’ll get it back once -”

“I don’t want it back,” Barnes says, quick and harsh. “I don’t - not that arm. I don’t want that one back. You can burn it,” he finishes, with sudden, unexpected vehemence, before clamping his mouth shut and letting his face go blank.

“Oh thank god,” Tony says. “I’m pretty sure putting this back on a  _ person _ would have violated the last remaining moral bone in my body.” 

And that cracks Barnes’ face, he lets out a huff of laughter.

Tony continues, “Rhodey and I’ll build you a prototype as soon as - as soon as we can, and, when there’s time, we’ll start retooling the shoulder interface from something less - archaic,  and then you can collaborate with both of us and Cho on the Mark 2.”

“That sounds - that sounds alright to me.”

“Okay, yeah,” Tony says. “Yeah, good.”

“Suit?” Rhodey says.

“What - oh, yeah, that kind of suit. Yeah,” Tony says. “Bathroom’s over there. It’s gonna be short on you, but, you know, that’s what you get for towering over us normal people.”

Barnes looks at him strangely - Rhodey wonders if, again, he’s imagining the nostalgia in his expression. He lets out a huff of air that’s almost a snort, but goes. Tony sits back down and turns to the container holding the earpieces in molded foam.

Rhodey stands behind him, puts his hands on his shoulders and leans down to kiss the top of his head. “You’re doing good, Tones.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” he says, and takes a deep breath. “Thanks,” Tony says, and tilts his head to kiss the knuckles of Rhodey’s right hand, where it lies on Tony’s shoulder. “I - I’m gonna wire them in to the new frequency, can you text Cap?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I got it,” he says, and relays the numbers Tony gives him.

They’re interrupted, just as he hits send, by muffled swearing from the bathroom. 

A few moments later, Barnes walks out, shirt hanging off one shoulder and arm, suit jacket still in hand, and cautiously looks up at them with a plea for help written on his face.

“Okay, well, I did not account for that,” Tony says. 

“Alright. Okay,” Rhodey says, and steps over to help Barnes pull on the shirt and button it, and pull the jacket on over it, because apparently he helps dress former assassins now. He accepts this.

“If we can find a safety pin, we can pin up the sleeves so it doesn’t flop around,” Tony says, rummaging through the drawers. “Ahah!”

“You found one?” 

“No, but I found a binder clip. Almost as good.” 

Rhodey smiles.

“Okay, how’s that?” Tony says, referring to the now-clipped sleeve.

Barnes moves back and forth experimentally. “Not bad.”

“Alright, okay, hair, arm, suit - earpiece -” He passes one into Barnes’ good hand, then puts one in his own. “Testing, testing, one, two, three. Okay, Cap’s not on the line yet.”

“How’re you gonna be with the crowds?” Rhodey asks.

Barnes eyes dart back and forth. 

“There’s gonna be a lot of cameras. People looking at you.” Tony jumps in. “Probably shouting questions. I - that’s different than being part of a crowd.”

Barnes tilts his head, shrugs.

“Yeah, okay,” Tony says. “Just - just try to smile, if you can, maybe wave? And just, stay calm. Rhodey will have you, and I’ll do my best to keep the paparazzi focused on me as we get you in. I’m pretty good at that,” he says, with a sidelong grin.

“Yeah,” Barnes nods gratefully. “Yeah - thanks.”

“Friday, what’s the press situation outside the UN?”

“Starting to pick up, boss.”

“Alright, let’s see if you can get it to pick up a little faster, yeah?”

_ “Is this thing on?” _

“Sam?” Rhodey says into the earpiece.

_ “Yeah, I’m here. Steve’s here too.” _

_ “Hey.”  _ Steve says. _ “How is - how are you?” _

“We’re all ship-shape,” Tony says, looking at Barnes. “About to head out just as soon as we check in with Natasha.”

“ _ I’m just waiting on you boys, _ ” Natasha says on another end of the line. 

“Well, far be it from us to keep you waiting.” Tony gestures to the door. “Shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now you can see why the working title of this document was "Tony and Rhodey accidentally adopt an Ex-Hydra assassin"
> 
> Internet brownie points if you know what 'one of Rhodey's favorite novels' is.


	3. Barnes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is it they say, about plans and first contact?

As it turns out, camera flashes are a lot like muzzle flashes. He clenches the fist of his right hand, imagines that he can feel his left fist tighten and clench as well.

“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!” 

Tony taps his elbow - and he has another gauntlet device on his wrist, but he hasn’t activated it. Not a threat. “Breathe,” he says softly, before he leans over to Rhodey and adds. “You know, at some point, you think they’d get the hint that they can start shouting your name too.”

Rhodey just elbows him in the side, but without real force. Not a threat.

Something goes through the crowd of reporters as they get closer, and they all start staring at him instead, recognition and fear suffusing every face. 

He watches the crowd -  _ none with any military training, the two on the left side closest to him are easy targets, four in the crowd are taller and heavier than he is, the camera poles two meters ahead are likely not highly durable but can improve his reach. If he corrects his form for the lack of balance from his missing arm - _

_ This is a mission  _ a little voice, low and hollow in the back of his head, whispers, and he smiles, and he waves. 

The cameras flash like a firing squad.

“Mr. Barnes!”

It only takes one voice to set them off, and then they’re all shouting his name and a million questions.

Rhodey has one hand on his shoulder and Tony’s between him and the cameras. “Mr. Barnes isn’t -”

He breathes.

“I didn’t bomb the United Nations,” he says, as loudly and clearly as he can, and Tony shifts slightly - to give him a better angle on the microphones, not to expose him to attack. He’s not a threat. “I’m here to help the UN with its investigation,” he says, and his voice sounds steady and assured.

Voices are good at lying. He’s learned that well.

“Mr. Barnes is here voluntarily and in good faith,” Rhodey says, as the UN security approaches.

_ Bulletproof vests. Bodycams. Armed with Glocks. Two on the right are taller and heavier than he is. All former German military. Second from the left has sloppy gun form. Easiest way to disarm -  _

Tony throws up holograms, bigger than life, every camera trains on them. They’re at an angle such that the bodycams will catch them too, Barnes notes. 

“ _ This _ is the footage of the Vienna bombing used to accuse Mr. Barnes.  _ This _ is footage in Bucharest, twenty minutes later. Now, in a Stark jet, you can get to Bucharest from Vienna, pretty quick, but you can’t do that in twenty minutes. You can’t do that in my Iron Man armor, and I can tell you that Mr. Barnes didn’t have that. And, if you look at the footage in Berlin, and then back at Mr. Barnes -” The hologram is helpfully highlighted and labeled as he speaks - “You’ll see that this doesn’t  _ really  _ look that much like Mr. Barnes. Oh, and, by the way, all this footage is now on your phones and your network servers, in case you want to run the analysis yourselves.” 

Journalists turn from their microphones to pull - phones, they’re just phones, he knows that silhouette - out of their pockets, and the security team finally reaches them. 

“Colonel Rhodes, sir!”

There’s a jumble of commands being relayed, and Tony turns back to them. “You did great, kid, you’re gonna be America’s sweetheart in no time.” 

Bucky looks down a little, smiles, huffs out a snort of laughter. When he looks back up, Tony is Looking at Rhodes. Bucky looks away, tracks the movement of Tony’s fingers flexing - they’re not forming a fist, they’re not reaching for him, he’s not a threat, he’s not -

Rhodey nods. Tony nods, half smiles in a way that’s clearly meant to show that there’s no threat but fails to be convincing. 

Tony turns back to the crowd of reporters before security fully closes around them. One of the officers is holding heavy duty cuffs, clearly without any idea what to do with them in this situation. 

Rhodes sighs, holds out his left arm unflinchingly. “Okay?” he asks Bucky, as another agent puts a set of looser cuffs around his ankles. 

“Yeah. Okay,” he says, and the officers cuff his right arm to Rhodey’s left.

Behind them, they hear Tony start again. “You wanna know what I think? This is just me, no lawyers, no UN approval - just me? I think -”

The doors close behind them.

Tony’s voice is still in his ear on the comms, though, and he’s on tv screens inside the UN, the sound muted. It’s - odd, but maybe not in a bad way.  

The swarm of security directs them - after communication on their own comms - to a room with a single window and a heavy metal desk - too heavy for him to lift alone, he guesses, as they unlock his arm from where it’s locked to Rhodes’ and chain it to the table instead, and the way the glass is sunk in suggests that it’s bulletproof, though he wishes he could touch it to make a better guess. His arm would have been able to break through bulletproof glass - breaking the glass would disorient the guards but he could focus through it, glass cuts are more of a distraction for them than for him.

“We have him, Colonel, if you’ll step outside.”

“Yeah, I’m fine here, thanks,” Rhodes says, planting his feet - good stance, though the guard has the advantage on him in terms of height and reach. The stance is more for show than anything, he has to guess, the guard is armed with another Glock, and Rhodes is unarmed, unless Rhodes thinks he can move quickly enough to disarm - but he’s barely in the right range, and though his stance is stable, it’s wrong for a quick move like that.

The guard looks from Rhodes, back to him, and back to Rhodes. “Of course, sir,” he says, and he’s clearly unsure of what his orders dictate that he do in this situation. They hadn’t been prepared for him to come in, this much is assured.

When the guard steps out, four guards remain outside, three inside, leaving the room cramped - he could use that to his advantage, he thinks, pushing gently against the table to see if he would be able to move it, use it to pin two, the one on the left is the weak link, they still have guns, but if he can use the table as a shield, or if he can unbalance Rhodes, he’s still in range, if he twists he might dislocate his shoulder but a sudden impact of his head against Rhodes’ hips, hang on with his remaining arm and put Rhodes’ body between himself and the guns, he can get close enough to disarm one of them, and one is enough - 

“ _ Are you both okay in there?”  _ Steve says on their comms. Behind his voice he can still hear Tony, speaking to the crowd

Rhodey leans over, asks, “How are you feeling?”

Letting him answer without giving away that they’re on comms. Good strategy. 

“Fine,” he says, not thinking about muzzle flashes. Focusing on the guards.

As he watches the security guards - the ones inside and the ones outside, through the window - on the other end of the comms, he hears the voice that must be Sam.

“ _ Damn, it’s already trending. _ ” 

“ _ What? _ ” He hears Steve ask.

“‘ _ Free Bucky’ and ‘Longest Serving POW’. And ‘Habeas Corpus’, which is fairly impressive. I didn’t realize that many people knew how to spell that _ .”

Rhodey tries to hold in a smile. Barnes keeps watching the window

The window also lets them see when Tony walks inside. Tony grins and waves at him, and blows a kiss at Rhodes, who rolls his eyes and covers his mouth to hide a half-smile.

He’s quickly accosted by another UN official, but Tony’s voice is still in their ears after he walks out of view, answering a question.  _ “Providing information to the press. There’s still freedom of the press here, right?”  _

Friday, in all their ears.  _ “Yes, boss.” _

_ “See. Friday says there’s still freedom of the press.” _

A pause, Tony’s listening to someone else.  _ “Hey, it’s already trending.”  _ He laughs.  _ “That’s fast, even for me.” _

Beside him, Rhodey puts a fist over his mouth to keep himself from giggling. 

A pause. “ _ No, I don’t think this is a game. Games have rules.” _

After another moment, Tony laughs. “ _ Yes, please go talk to Ross _ .”

In a few moments, Tony is outside of the door, waving at them. 

“ _ Really?”  _ he says to the guards. “ _ I brought him in. Well, Rhodey and I. You let  _ him _ in there.”  _ Pause. “ _ I think your boss is busy right now, but alright.” _

It’s another minute before they let him in.

“Sorry guys,” Tony says, and now they can hear him properly. “You know how paparazzi are,”

“Yeah, and what tabloid headlines should we expect you to be making today?” Rhodey asks, grinning.

Bucky watches them, and he can tell that for all their words, they’re not really ignoring the guards with guns in the room. 

“Well, I’m claiming that this cryptid of the intelligence community is not only real but a former World War two soldier who was BFFs with our very own supersoldier and was set up for a crime by mysterious, unknown figures, so I think the tabloid headline is our life.”

“That doesn’t mean they aren’t going to make shit up anyway.”

“Oh, of course not, what fun would that be? I’m betting on headlines saying that Barnes here is somehow my lovechild hitting the presses about - now.”

Rhodes laughs. 

“So now we wait for Ross.”

“And that’s gonna be a fun meeting.”

“ETA on -”

“Still no teleportation.”

As it turns out, Ross isn’t the first one to arrive.

A man he doesn’t recognize is standing at the door, as Tony says “Ah, the King arrives.” He’s trying to hide how he’s frowning, and Rhodey tenses.

“T’challa,” Rhodey fills in, and Bucky puts the pieces together to conclude that this is the Wakandan King they mentioned before. “The bomb killed his dad,” Rhodey says, glancing at Tony. 

When T’challa enters the room, Barnes watches him. He sees T’challa case the room much like he would; assessing everyone’s strengths and his own position. 

“Your majesty,” Rhodey says, standing up as Tony does the same. “Our sympathies for your loss.”

“Sympathies?” T’challa says, stepping forward towards the two of them in a way that sends off warning bells in his head  “You stand here in a room with my father’s killer, and you speak to me of sympathies?”

He breathes faster, and sees Howard’s face under his hands, but it’s not real because he doesn’t have two hands now.

Tony doesn’t say anything about Howard. His stance, with T’challa so close to him - T’challa is strong, he can’t tell how strong exactly but he’s a threat and Tony is not in the right position, but if he can keep the table between him and the threat, Rhodes might be able to - 

“See, I’ve got pretty compelling evidence here that he didn’t. And - look, I respect what you’re trying to do, but if there’s even a hint of a doubt, do you want to risk the chance that you just let the man who killed your father go?”

Rhodey’s watching the two of them carefully, frowning, but he isn’t tensing up to move in between them.

Bucky presses his hand flat against the table  _ not a threat not a threat not a threat _

“Where is your  _ evidence _ ? You toss pictures to the media, and -”

“Here. Friday?” Tony says. “Send all of the footage that you pulled to the Wakandan delegation. Friday will get you anything else you need, if you’d prefer the files in other formats, or - she’ll monitor my email for your replies,” he says, continuing to T’challa, “Your analytics are better than ours. If I’m wrong, tell me. But if I’m right - you -  _ you _ help us catch the real guy.”

T’challa pulls out a slim device, and apparently sees the message received. “And if what I see on here tells me that Barnes is guilty of my father’s murder?”

“Then I’m wrong, and you hire the best prosecutor and push for extradition. Ross certainly isn’t going to stop you,” Tony says, as Steve hisses  _ “Tony,” _ on the other end of the line. Tony barrels on. “But if I’m right, and something you find on there helps us catch the real guy - you really want to pass that up?”

T’challa turns his device over in his hand and then tucks it back in his pocket. “I’ll consider this.”

“Thank you,” Tony says.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and he doesn’t know if it’s the right thing to say, or the right time, but he has to say it, “about your father.”

T’challa looks at him, but doesn’t say anything, just turns for the door. 

“Well,” Rhodey says when the door closes, “All things considered, that went well.”

Tony slumps back in his seat. “That was a fucking miracle. I don’t know how he’s doing it. Playing politics and detective after - after what happened. Anyone else - I don’t know how he’s doing it.” 

Rhodey bites his lip, watching Tony but with his eyes slightly distant, like he’s remembering something. Barnes wonders how old Tony had been when - when he’d killed Howard. And his wife, whose name he can’t remember. Wonders if Rhodey had been there. 

Tony barrels on, clearly not wanting to dwell on that last point. “I mean - independent verification we needed anyway, but if we could get independent verification from the  _ Wakandans _ ! If their tech can do  _ half  _ of what I’ve heard it can, they can fingerprint this guy like, yesterday.”

“Now it’s just Ross,” Rhodey says.

“Now it’s just Ross,” Tony repeats. “‘Just’ Ross. Heh.”

“If we’re going to need to get him to back putting teams out to try and find the real bomber -”

“If the Wakandan team verifies what we’ve seen, and gives us another lead - I think they’ll make that case for us. No,” Tony says, “What I’m worried about is if Ross tries to move him - move you,” he amends, talking directly to Barnes now, “- or have you moved, rather, somewhere ‘pending a trial,’ nominally. We’ll need to make the case for keeping everything in the public eye, and show that - that you’re acting in good faith.”

_ “I don’t like this,”  _ Steve says on the other end of the line.

“Listen to me - listen. Whatever happens, whatever they want -” Rhodey looks at Tony, “I’ll stay with him. We’ll make that a condition.”

“I’m already getting the War Machine armor here,” Tony says, leaning back.

He twitches at that - he can’t fight the War Machine armor, not even if he still had his arm. But it’s not a threat. Rhodey’s not a threat. 

Tony leans back in his chair as he pulls out his phone. “Well this should be interesting.” He says, flicking the screen as he scrolls down, chuckling to himself. “Have you checked twitter?” He’s ostensibly speaking to Rhodey, but he gets the sense that he’s directing his words to the whole linked team - Steve, he’s heard, though Sam, who he thinks is the man with the wings from before, and Natasha, who - she’s the redhead.

Rhodey leans over Tony’s shoulder to look at the screen, but then abruptly looks up. Someone’s approaching the door, and Barnes can guess immediately that this is Ross.

“Ross,” Tony says flippantly, as the man enters the room. “So you’ve been having a day, I’m sure.”

“Stark,” Ross says, “I don’t know what the hell you thought you were pulling with that stunt out there -”

“ _ Stunt _ ? I’m sorry, if I had known we were in the X-games, I would have brought out something a little flashier than security footage.”

“The Germans are trying to try and find out how the hell you hacked their camera systems -”

“Oh, they can ask me themselves, I’d be happy to give them some pointers on better digital security.”

“ _ Stark _ , _ ”  _ Ross grits out, “If you think you can just decide the Winter Soldier is innocent based on stolen traffic cam footage -”

“I think that decision would be up to a jury, wouldn’t you? When are you looking at for the trial? Lieutenant Barnes’ lawyer will be here in -” he checks his watch, “- five hours and forty-seven minutes, we’re happy to start looking at jury selection then.”

“You can’t possibly think that this - that this -” Ross waves a hand, “This is a weapon of mass destruction we’re talking about. He’s accused of dozens of killings, not counting yesterday. The jurisdictions alone boggle the mind. No jury could possibly sit in the same room as this man.”

“And yet, I’m sitting here, perfectly fine,” Tony says.

“Lieutenant Barnes has acted in good faith." Rhodey says, "He turned himself in and has been perfectly cooperative throughout the process.”

“He turned himself into you - not to the UN. He ran to Steve Rogers friends, probably hoping that you’d -”

“I didn’t run,” he says, and Ross looks at him, startled. “I wanted Tony to bring me - here. I didn’t know how to come in myself and not be shot.” He looks at Ross. “Someone bombed the United Nations. It’s important that you find out who.”

Ross takes a moment to readjust, apparently not having expected him to speak. He seems to decide that the best course is to ignore him, and barrels on, “Nevertheless, it remains -”

“If Lieutenant Barnes had wanted to run, he could have. If he had wanted to prevent us from bringing him to the UN, he could have,” Rhodey says. “This wasn’t a fight, Mr. Secretary.”

“And yet I see Mr. Barnes is missing an arm. Now how - ”

“I asked them to take it off,” he says. “I - I don’t want anything from Hydra still on me.”

“Another show of good faith,” Tony says.

“Nevertheless, we have to take steps to secure the situation first. You can’t possibly expect a trial to be coordinated in this - “

“Really?” Tony leans forward, and he’s not poised to fight, not in the way Barnes’ thinks about it, but he has the same gleam in his eye. “Because there’s been some pretty serious international outcry for one. Eight - no, nineteen now - world leaders have already publically denounced any move to deny Barnes a trial since the footage was released, and about twenty-seven United Nations representatives, no, wait, that was five minutes ago, it’s thirty-seven now. And more locally, I’m looking at a bipartisan coalition of Senators and Representatives who seem pretty eager to remind the world that Barnes was a war hero. Senator Booker - wow, even Senator McCain, nice to have support from another former POW,” Tony says, looking over at him for a moment before looking back at Ross. “Hey, are you looking forward to the call from the president? Oh, I see you’ve already had it.”

“We’re willing,” Ross says, pinching his nose, “to let Barnes talk with your lawyer contingent on preliminary psychological evaluation.” He can see Tony and Rhodey’s shoulders relax a little. Ross looks at him - well, not at him so much as at the handcuff shackling his right arm to the table. “We’ll have to take precautions for the safety of the psychologist.” 

“Absolutely. No need to put anyone in danger. That’s why I’m recommending we put the best we’ve got in there with him. You want security? We can give you the toughest soldier on our team.”

“Stark, if you think for even half a second that I’m letting  _ Rogers  _ in there -”

“What? No. Last I heard Steve was off sightseeing.” Ross snorts at that. “Last time he was in Germany things were pretty rough, and he didn’t get to do a lot of the touristy stuff. Plus, a lot’s changed since then. No,” Tony says. “I was talking about Colonel Rhodes.” 

Ross blinks.

“The War Machine armor is already on its way here, if that helps.”

Ross’s phone rings.

“Oh! Is that the Chinese representatives to the United Nations calling to tell us we’re hypocrites on human rights? Because they just did on Twitter.”

Ross glares, and steps out of the room to take the call.

“Okay, should I be worried about how much you enjoy messing with important political leaders?”

“If it helps, I also really like bragging about you.” Rhodey looks down and Tony sighs. “I hate these people, Rhodey. I just - I spent an hour grovelling to this guy to keep him from putting a manhunt out for Ro-” He looks at Barnes and stops that sentence,  “Now - now that we don’t absolutely have a gun to our heads, I - I want to make him eat shit.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Rhodey says, and his voice is cold and bitter. “Me too,  _ believe me.  _ But there’s a place to remind him we’ve got leverage without going straight to pissing him off. That’s not going to make this any easier. Especially not with - earlier.”

Tony sighs, “Would it be too much for this to be enough of a distraction that everyone could just - forget about that?”

“Not with our luck,” Rhodey says, and Tony lets out a huff of laughter. 

“But we can piss him off afterwards, right? That is what you’re saying.”

“Hell yes,” Rhodey says vehemently. 

“Sounds good to me,” Barnes finds himself saying.

“Okay,  _ well _ , if  _ Barnes _ agrees I’ll go with it,” Tony says, grinning.

“At least we’ve got another voice of reason around here.”

“Please, like you’re a voice of reason, adrenaline junkie.”

Rhodey sighs but doesn’t argue the point. “You doing okay?” Rhodey asks, and it takes him a second to realize that Rhodey’s asking him. “I mean, you good with this?”

Barnes shrugs. 

“Yeah, fair enough.”

“Are  _ you _ okay with this?” Tony asks Rhodey.

“Hey, flattery will get you everywhere.” 

“I can be in there with you, you know. I could move the armor just as easily -”

“Tony. It’s okay,” Rhodey says, “It doesn’t make sense to put both of us in there, and you’re more useful out here -”

“Making noise for the cameras, I know.” He beams a megawatt smile. “I’m good at that.”

“And I am the Big Gun.”

“Well -”

“ _ We’re close by _ ,” Steve says, on the other end of the line. 

“It’s fine. It’s going to be fine,” Tony says, as more guards enter. He knows from long experience that that statement is, always and without fail, a lie.

Ross steps back into the room. “Our psychologist is on site. The guards will escort Barnes and Colonel Rhodes down in a minute. You -” He waves a hand, clearly frustrated, and ducks back outside to deal with new arrivals in the lobby.

“Well, this should be fun. Hey, if the shrink asks about your childhood, will you have any embarrassing stories about Steve?”

He hears someone - not Steve, it must be Sam - snort from the other end of the line.

A guard steps in. “Colonel Rhodes.”

Tony’s watch beeps. “Ah, good timing,” he says, then looks back up at the guards. “You’re going to want to get that.”

Through the window, he can see that outside the doors, the War Machine armor is landing. Rhodey grins, a fierce, gleeful smile. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

After some frantic communication over the guards’ comms, they let the armor in. Guards unchain his arm from the desk to secure it to a chain around his waist; he tries not to focus on the feeling or on anything it might bring up in his memory. It’s not a threat.

Rhodey steps into the suit, he forces himself to remember that he’s not a threat. He’s on his side; he’s staying with him, so it’s safe to accept the chains around his wrists. 

“You good?” Tony asks Rhodey.

“All set.” Rhodey says, his voice filtered slightly through the suit. 

“Alright,” Tony pecks the faceplate of the armor quickly. “Have fun with the shrink. Be sure that he asks for any embarrassing stories about Rogers,” he says with a grin.

“Ridiculous,” Rhodey mutters, his voice fond. 

The guards walk them to the lower levels. 

Once they reach another room - notably larger than the room he had been previously kept in - the guards chain him to another table, while War Machine - Rhodey - stands in the corner. 

It’s not long before another man walks in, not tall, seemingly unremarkable, but he cases the room like he would, walks like a man with military training. He’s not relaxed.

Barnes tries to look at Rhodey, somehow to catch his eye through the armor. 

“Hello, Colonel Rhodes.” He nods in Rhodey’s direction.

“You’re the UN psychologist?”

“Dr. Broussard, yes,” Broussard says, “Hello Mr. Barnes,”

“Lieutenant Barnes,” Rhodey says.

Broussard looks back at him. “Lieutenant Barnes, yes.  I’ve been sent by the UN to evaluate you. May I sit?” He nods. “Your first name is James?”

“My name is -” he starts, then stops. “People called me Bucky.”

“Bucky,” Broussard says, with a thin smile. “I am not here to judge you, Bucky. That is for the lawyers and the courts to decide.” He says, with a nod towards Rhodey in the corner. “I just want to ask you a few questions. You’ve seen a great deal, haven’t you?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Rhodey’s voice is in his ear - he must have muted the War Machine’s sound systems. “ _ Are you okay? _ ”

“How did you become a psychologist?” he asks Broussard.

Broussard smiles, and opens his mouth to say something.

The room goes dark. 

“ _ Boss,”  _ Friday’s voice says in his ear as she speaks to Tony. “ _ An explosion at the power station has brought down power to the whole building.” _

_ “Boost the signal on Barnes and Rhodey’s pieces and get me any cameras that are still running on backup power. I’m coming down, Rhodey, what’s going on down there?” _

_ “Guys, do we need to move in?”  _ Steve says.

Bucky focuses on the room in front of him. The doctor has stood up and backed away from the table, apparently confused. He’s heading for Rhodey. “Colonel Rhodes, do you have any idea what’s going on -”

Bucky knows that something’s about to go wrong the split second before the doctor reaches out and puts his hand on the metal arm of the War Machine armor, the moment he catches the glimpse of something metallic in his hand. “Assemble _.”  _ He says quickly, then shouts again to the comms “Assemble!!” but Rhodes is already down, lightning arcing over and around the armor, and he’s on his feet and hauling against the cuffs restraining his wrist and ankles to the table. “Assemble!! Rhodey is down, the doctor attacked him,  _ Assemble _ !”

There’s a jumble of voices on the other end of the line but Bucky focuses on the doctor. “I am sorry, Colonel Rhodes. This - was not my plan. But it may be more - efficient, this way. Perhaps even less bloody. If it helps, you may think of yourself as a sacrifice for the greater good.”

Rhodey isn’t moving,  _ Rhodey isn’t moving,  _ and the doctor’s turned around to come back to the table, pulling out a small, worn book with a red cover -

Tony snarls,  _ “If he hurt Rhodey he’s dead already _ ,” on the other end of the line, and all he can think is  _ nonononononnono notagainnotagain please not again  _ and he’s yanking as hard as he can on the chains connecting him to the desk, millimeter by millimeter dragging it across the room.

“ _ Longing _ ,” The doctor says, words so familiar that he hardly registers that he's switched to speaking Russian, and he hears himself  _ howl,  _ breaking the chain on his right wrist. 

“ _ Rusted _ .”

“ _ Bucky, hold on, we’re coming, we’re in the building just hold on - _ ” Steve says, 

“ _ Furnace _ .” 

But they won’t make it in time because he knows what’s happening. 

“ _ Daybreak _ .” 

He knows exactly how many words are left -

“ _ Seventeen _ .”

\- and oh, god  _ notagainnotagainnotagain _

_ “Benign _ .”

He’s still screaming, as though that will drown out the words, and he breaks his left foot free of the chain but it’s  _ not enough. _

“ _ Nine _ .”

Tony’s voice emerges above the others on the earpiece. “ _ Rhodey - Rhodey!”  _

_ “Homecoming _ .”

And he can hear what Tony’s responding to, grunting and swearing that sounds like Rhodey - 

_ “One _ .”

And then Rhodey  _ is  _ moving, no armor but he’s slamming the flat of -  _ when did he get a taser sword I want one  _ flashes across the tiniest remaining portion of his brain that isn’t howling - into the doctor’s head, and tackling him to the floor. 

“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, but you’re under arrest!” And the doctor just laughs and chokes out -

“ _ Freight car _ .”

And the last chain snaps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If a bit of that sounded familiar, it's because a couple of 'Broussard's lines are directly from CA:CW
> 
> Brownie points to anyone who can guess which exchange in here was one of the first scenes I thought of for this fic...
> 
> See you next week, and remember that the 'fix it' tag is there for a reason :)


	4. Rogers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now we rewind and get Steve's side of the story, through to the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cliffhanger is resolved this chapter, you guys, I swear.

Sam’s phone ringing makes him jump.  

Sam looks at him before he pulls out the phone, “It’s Nat.”

Steve fights down the irrational compulsion to pull the phone out of his hands and answer it himself, desperate for news. He looks at his own phone, though there’s no way he could have missed a call - nothing.

“Hey,” Sam says as he answers the phone, “Yeah,”

Steve watches him intently as Sam frowns slightly, then leans over and takes Steve’s arm, tugging him out of the cafe, out into the street among the milling people.

“Okay,” Sam says, then listens to the other end of the phone as they walk down the busy street. Steve really, really wishes that the serum had enhanced his hearing. “Give me a minute.”

Sam moves the phone away from his ear and turns to Steve. “Nat’s going to talk to you, and whatever she says, you need to keep walking and not make a scene, alright?”

“Is this about -”

“Yeah. Be cool, alright? It’s not bad.”

Steve holds out his hand for the phone. Sam looks at him for a moment, then hands it over.

“What’s going on?” Steve says without preamble.

“You’re walking?” Nat asks.

“Nat, I swear to god -”

“Barnes is safe.” Nat says, and Sam hooks his arm into Steve’s to steady him and keep him walking.

“Where?”

“He’s safe. He’s with Tony and Jim.”

“Wha - Where, Nat?”

“If I tell you, will you promise me that you aren’t going to turn around and have Sam fly you over there?”

“Nat -”

She sighs. “He’s at Tony’s place. Jim called me, they think he’s innocent.”

“What - how -”

“He came in on his own. Steve -” Nat takes a breath, “the police are still looking for Barnes. Tony talked Ross down from sending teams to look for you two, but that doesn’t mean that nobody will notice if Captain America makes a scene in the middle of Berlin, alright?”

He isn’t sure where to start on ‘talking down’ and ‘Tony’ in the same sentence.

“Bucky - is he -”

“Jim said - he said Barnes was talking to Tony. They’ve got a plan, but Steve, they need you to stay under the radar to pull it off. Play tourist. Trust your team”

“Nat, I - it’s not that -”

“Listen,” Nat says, “Jim said to call him if you were concerned. Can you at least promise me you won’t do anything stupid until you’ve talked to him?”

“Natasha.” He says, takes a deep breath. “You’re sure about this?”

“As sure as I am of anything,” she says, with a wry twist that makes him smile in spite of himself. “You’ll call Jim?”

“Right now.”

“Will you - just call me afterwards, alright? Before you do anything.”

“It’s almost as if you think I’m reckless.”

“I wonder where I would have gotten that idea,” Nat says. “Call me?”

“Yeah,” Steve says, and hangs up.

“So,” Sam says.

“I’m calling Jim.”

“This is good news, right?”

Steve’s already dialing.

Jim picks up after the first ring. “Rhodes.”

Steve can barely breathe. “He’s with you?”

“Yeah, Steve, he’s _fine -_ ”

 _He’s_ fine _\- !_

“Nat said,” he says, forcing himself to breathe steadily and put one foot in front of the other, “You think he’s innocent.”

“There’s footage of him in Bucharest, six hundred miles away, 20 minutes after the bombing. We have reason to believe the footage at the bomb site was faked.” Jim’s voice is firm and steady. “He was set up.”

For just a moment, he feels like things might just work. He takes a breath and finally feels like it fills his lungs, takes another step. “How is he?”

“He’s - he’s good, Steve.” Jim almost seems to laugh a little, and that - that’s not the response he expected, not after the last time he saw Bucky. “Honestly, if someone had told me an ex-Hydra assassin was gonna be in my kitchen this morning, I wouldn’t have expected this kid.” There’s a pause at the end of the line. “Tony’s heckling him about his hair,” Jim says, with amused fondness.

“What?” Steve says, completely unable to make _that_ mental image process. Tony heckling, sure, but not - that the Bucky Barnes he’d seen last year. Not Tony Stark sitting down and having a round of friendly goading with the ‘Winter Soldier’, the man who -  “Why?”

“We’re bringing him in in -” Steve hisses on the intake of breath through his teeth. “I’m not sure, probably less than half an hour. Tony wants to make sure the press and the public are on Barnes’ side -”

A catch. Of course there’s a catch.

“I thought you said you thought he was innocent?” he says, voice tight. _Don’t make a scene_ Nat's voice says in his head.

Jim sighs, impatient, like Steve’s being stupid. “We _do_ , but we don’t get to be the arbiters on that.” He almost starts to say something, but Jim plows on. “We’re hoping if we can get public opinion swayed there’ll be enough political pressure to get Barnes a trial.”

Like trials are something you buy with tv ratings, like they aren’t a right, like Bucky doesn’t deserve better - “To get -”

“ _I know_ ,” Jim says, and Sam puts a hand on his arm, forcing him to keep walking. “But I don’t know if you noticed, we don’t have a lot of leverage here.”

Because it’s not about right or wrong, or freedom, it’s about power, it’s about winning the political game, finding the right angle. It’s not about a single thing he fought for. He’s tired of games, he’s tired of walking, and now he just wants something he can do that isn’t being a damned _tourist._

“I want to see him,” he grits out.

Jim sighs, again, like Steve hasn’t been searching for years, like this is just a _whim_. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen right now.”

“What?”

“Look, I know you missed Tony talking Ross out of searching for you with half the German police force,” and there it is again, and he still can’t  - it’s hard to hold the enormity of it in his head. It’s not that he’s not had practice in having people he thought were on his side start coming after him, but - “but I don’t think it should come as a surprise that you’re not exactly in Ross’s good books right now. Just - just let us deal with one political fight at a time, okay?” He grits his teeth. Because of course that’s all it is. “Lay low, play tourist, and we’ll bring you in as soon as we’ve got Barnes with Tony’s lawyer.”

Steve inhales, a hissing breath through his clenched teeth. “I don’t know if that’s a promise I can make.”

“Jesus,” Rhodey says, like _he’s_ the one that’s being unreasonable here, “Steve -”

He doesn’t know why he has to restate the obvious here, but - “You can’t even guarantee him a _trial -_ ”

“What, and you think having numbers two and three on the UN’s shit list on the scene is going to make that any _easier?_ ” Jim says, disbelieving.

Steve tries to contain his sense of contrarian satisfaction at having made the hypothetical shit list.

He takes a deep breath, tries to reframe the options, tries to bring some sense to this conversation. “Why bring him in at all? Why not wait until you’ve got the lawyer, make Ross promise a trial?”

“And when Ross calls our bluff and the German police and the King of Wakanda come knocking on our door we do what? Suit up and go Rambo on their asses?”

Steve resists the urge to say, ‘Well, yeah,’ given that that’s about what he would have planned on doing if he had found Bucky first.

“Yeah, let’s see how well that goes,” Jim continues, and takes a deep breath. “Jennifer’s another seven hours away at _best,_ and we’re pushing it even waiting as long as we have. I’m half expecting the a bunch of German police officers to ram down our front door any second and arrest us for harboring a _wanted criminal_.”

He thinks of Sam. who had let him and Nat in to his house when they were just two ‘wanted criminals,’ and hadn’t turned them in.

“Steve, we just -” Jim continues, obviously frustrated, “- we don’t get to set terms and conditions for bringing in a guy who, as far as everybody else is concerned, blew up the UN and killed a _King,_ for chrissakes.”

“Not even when he’s been _set up_?” But of course it doesn’t, because it’s the perception that matters, not the truth.

“Look, _we’re doing our best_ , I swear to god, Steve. I know this -” Jim hesitates on the other end of the line, and Steve bites his tongue to keep from cutting in, “- is your friend, and honestly, when he started getting excited about the holoprojections, I thought Tony was going to start drawing up adoption papers right then and there.”

He doesn’t quite know where to start between _of course Tony started using his holos like he always does_ and _there goes Bucky, making a beeline right for the nerd tech_ and _Bucky’s himself enough to -?_ and the sheer impossibility of - of _whatever_ was going on with Tony.

He doesn’t even realize that he’d missed what Jim said next until he catches a distant “Hey!” on the other end of the line that sounds like it must be Tony. “Knowing what we know, it’s the right thing to do, and just -”

 _The right thing to do?_ Steve holds back a surge of anger.

“ - look, he came in voluntarily,” Jim says, and he still doesn’t understand that, doesn’t understand - “he knows this is the plan,” Jim goes on, “we’re not fucking holding him here like -”

“Why?” The question bursts out of Steve, half formed. “Why come to you?”

He can’t help but think that they wouldn’t be here if Bucky had just come to him. He knew him, he knew he could trust him - didn’t he?

Had he tried? Had Steve missed him, somehow? But still - why, of all people, Tony, who -

“For god’s sake, Steve,” Rhodey, tired and frustrated, snaps, cutting off Steve’s train of thought, “I think he’s actually trying to take some goddamned responsibility.”

“For something he didn’t do?”

There’s a long pause on the other end of the line, and for a split second Steve thinks Jim hung up on him.

“Yeah,” Steve hears on the other end, slightly muffled. It doesn’t sound like Jim is talking to him.  “Yeah, Okay.” Jim’s voice clears up. “Barnes wants to talk to you.”

“I -” Steve’s stomach flips suddenly. For all that he’s thought of what he’d say when reunited with Bucky, properly, he’d - he’d certainly never pictured it like this, and he finds he’s not quite sure what to say. “Okay,” he forces out.

He feels overly aware of his own grip on the phone, like at any second it could slip out of his hands. He forces himself to keep his grip steady, to not crush the metal under his fingers.

“Hello,” the voice at the other end of the line says.

“Hey Buck,” he says, almost - reflexively. It feels too easy to say when his chest is this tight. He struggles with his next words, finally settles for the ones that feel easiest, the ones that he’s turned over and over until they’ve been tumbled into smooth stones. “Do you remember who I am?”

“You’re Steve,” he hears Bucky say, and Sam’s grip tightens on his arm as he pulls him forward, keeping him walking when he goes still.

“I pulled you out of the river,” Bucky continues, hesitantly.

“I - yeah. You did.” He’d - he’d guessed - he’d known, in his bones - but that doesn’t mean he - that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel anything to hear it affirmed, to hear it as the truth in Bucky’s voice. “Are you alright?”

“I’m - alright. Yeah.”

“Do you know - why you pulled me out?”

“I’ve been trying to - all this time -” He sighs. “And - all - the way here, I’ve been - I think - then, I think I remembered. Something - you - I think I used to be James Buchanan Barnes. I think I used to be Bucky.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s right,” he forces out, suddenly struggling to breathe. “You’re Bucky.”

He’s silent, and for a moment he feels numb with the fear that he hung up.

“You talked to Rhodey,” Bucky says finally.

“Yeah. Yeah, I did,” he says. “Buck, what - what happened?”

“I saw - I saw the newspaper. I went - I - I got my stuff and hid and - no one found me. And I -” The line is quiet for a moment. “I realized I didn’t want it to be like that forever. Running and hiding. And I -”

“We looked for you,” and he hates himself for how bitter he sounds. “For - if you  - you could have found us. If you wanted to come -”

“I know.”

“Are you -” And he finds he can’t decide what to ask.

“I’m alright,” Bucky says again. “I - I knew Stark - and Rhodes were your friends. I could trust them to - to help me.”

“Buck, I don’t -” Steve starts, “You know you don’t have to turn yourself in, right? I - we can help. I mean -”

“I know,” Bucky says, “This is - this is what I need to do. This is my choice,” he says, pronouncing the last word slowly, like he’s trying to remember it.

“You know this - this might not end well.”

“Yeah.”

“Then - why?”

“If I don’t, they’ll never catch the guy who set me up. The guy who bombed the place.” He’s quiet for a moment, and Steve hears him sigh. “I gotta stop running sometime. The only way that happens is if I do this right. And -- it’s the only way everyone gets answers.” He pauses. “I know they won’t be good ones.”

Steve pauses. He can guess some of the answers, what they’ll do. “You know I’m here. If there’s anything you - I can be there.”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

“You’re sure - everything’s alright?” Steve says.

“Yeah. You have a good team. Good friends,” he says, pronouncing the last word with almost - surprise, to find it leaving his mouth.

“Yeah,” Steve says,  “Yeah, I guess I do. I - I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too,” he says, a little wry, and it almost sounds like the man he’d spoken to before he went in the ice.

“Hey, don’t get in too much trouble.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Okay.”

Steve inhales. He doesn’t want to stop talking, not when he has - he has so many questions, so much to - “You can put Jim back on.”

“Yeah.”

“We good?” Jim says on the other end of the line, after a pause.

He sighs. “This is shitty and you know it.”

“Yeah, I do.” Jim’s voice is resigned, tired. “You gonna lay low?”

He bites back the urge to snap back.  “Yeah.”

“Want us to call you before we bring him in?” Jim asks.

He thinks - thinks around the anger. Thinks of this like a mission. It’s obvious, then. “Can we give him an earpiece? Wire the team up, so that we - so he has a way to get help if you get separated?”

“I don’t know, can you promise not to smash up the UN building the first time you hear something you think sounds like trouble?” There’s just an edge of teasing in his voice, and he returns it double.

“Smashing’s the Hulk’s job,” Certainly not a promise.

“Steve -” Jim says, a little frustrated now.

“We give the team a codeword,” Steve says. “Bucky included. Any of us can use it when - if shit goes sideways and we need backup.”

“Alright.” Jim says, and Steve relaxes a little,  What’s the code word?”

He looks over at Sam, and it occurs to him with a grin. “How about ‘Assemble’?”

“Assemble.” Jim’s trying to keep his voice steady, but he can hear the grin,  “Okay. You guys still got your earpieces?”

Steve looks over at Sam, taps his ear. Sam nods. “Yeah. Yeah, we got ‘em.”

“You’ll call Natasha, loop her in?”

“Yeah.” He thinks of the fact that Natasha had made him promise the same thing, and almost laughs. “Yeah, of course.”

“Alright,” Jim says, “We’ll text you the frequency when it’s set up. We’ll still be able to reach you at this number?”

“Yeah.”

“If your old brain gets too confused by the texting, just ask Sam for help, alright?” Jim teases, on a familiar slant.

And at that, he has to laugh. “You need to spend less time with Tony.”

“Not in a million years,” Jim says, chuckling, his voice warm. It feels - normal, for a second, “We good?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Steve says, and finds the words don’t ring entirely false. “Take care of him, okay?”

“Of course,” Jim says, and Steve believes him.

“Okay,” Steve says, and hangs up.

“So?” Sam asks.

“He’s okay,” Steve says, and the words almost don’t feel real coming from his mouth. “You have the earpieces?”

“Yeah,” Sam says, pulling them out of his bag as they walk. “What’s the plan?”

“He’s coming in. We’re on backup. Code word to move in is ‘Assemble’.”

“That, I got from this end of the conversation,” Sam says. “They really think he’s innocent?”

“I - yeah. Yeah.”

“So, what are you gonna do?”

Steve considers, for a moment, just saying to hell with it all and trying to beat a trail to Tony’s door.

“Stick to the plan for now,” Steve says, “We’re just waiting on the frequency.”

“You’re really cool with this?”

Steve smiles weakly. “Gotta stop running sometime.” He sighs. “I should call Natasha.”

Sam just looks at him as he dials.

“Steve,” Natasha says on the other end of the line, “Where are you?”

“Just walking, like you said.”

“Not walking towards the UN?”

Steve realizes that he’s been following Sam, and genuinely does not know where they are. “No,” he hazards.

Natasha exhales.

“I’m listening to Jim, for now. And Bucky.” He sighs, “This is - this is what he says he wants to do.”

Natasha’s silent, like she’s waiting for the ‘but’. At last, she asks, “So, what’s your play?”

He breathes in through his nose. “It’s a surveillance op for now. Jim will send us the new comm frequency, everyone will be wired up.”

“And?”

“And we move in if anyone says ‘Assemble.’ That’s the signal if anyone’s - if anything goes wrong.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s - that’s good.” Nat says. “You talked to - him?”

“Yeah.”

She’s silent for a moment. “How’d he sound?”

“He sounds -” Steve doesn’t know what to say. He didn’t sound like Bucky, except when he did? He didn’t sound like he had on the bridge? “He sounds okay. Better.”

“I’d hope so,” Nat says, a wry twist in her voice.

“He -” Steve starts. “He made a choice. His choice. That’s what he said. That’s good.” He can’t quite keep the uncertainty out of his voice.

“Yeah,” Nat says. “I’ll try and meet you.”

“Didn’t figure you for babysitting duty,” Steve teases.

Nat laughs. “I just want to watch the fireworks. Where are you guys?”

Steve looks around and lists off street and building names.

“Your accent is atrocious,” Nat tells him. “Keep walking, I’ll find you.”

Steve smiles, and doesn’t bother to ask her how.

“Nat okay?” Sam asks.

“Yeah. She’s coming to find us.”

“Of course.” Sam says.

It feels like an eternity of wandering through the city. before his phone pings with the frequency - a text from Jim. The two of them surreptitiously adjust their earpieces before putting them in.

“Is this thing on?” Sam says, and he hears him double.

“ _Sam?_ ”

 _“_ Yeah, I’m here.” Sam looks over at him, “Steve’s here too.”

 _“_ Hey _,”_ he says weakly, turning his head just so it looks like he’s talking to Sam, _“_ How is - how are you? _”_

“ _We’re all ship-shape,_ ” Tony says, “ _About to head out just as soon as we check in with Natasha_.”

“ _I’m just waiting on you boys,_ ” Natasha says on another end of the line.

“ _Well, far be it from us to keep you waiting. Shall we?_ ” Tony asks.

“We’re right here if you need us,” he says.

Sam points to a bar across the street. “You’re going to want to watch this.” He says, quietly.

Steve watches the muted tv in the bar, out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to be seen to pay too much attention. Sam, across from him, watches the door, watches his back.

It seems like an eternity before it switches over from covering speculation to covering footage outside the UN. Finally, the camera turns away from the announcer on the screen, to the trio approaching the UN, Tony and Jim on either side of Bucky, fuzzy figures as the camera zoom, and then, clearly, and - and Bucky doesn’t have his _arm,_ they took his _arm_ what the _hell_ Natasha hadn’t said there’d been a fight _Jim_ hadn’t said there’d been a fight _Steve he’s fine -_ Fuck, had Tony taken it off of him, like dissembling a machine - when Tony of all people should know better about machines - fuck, if this is some sick kind of Stark vengeance, Steve will -

_Tonydoesn’tknowTonydoesn’tknowTonydoesn’tknow_

“ _Breathe,”_ Tony’s voice says on the comm, as he leans over to Bucky on the screen, and Steve realizes he’s forgotten to.

He watches Bucky’s shoulders drop in response, just a little, glancing at Tony, who grins, gently, and Steve feels a little of the fire go out in his throat.

On the screen, Tony leans over to Jim and, over the comm, they hear, “ _You know, at some point, you think they’d get the hint that they can start shouting your name too.”_

Sam grins from across the table, then covers his face with his fist in a gesture that’s clearly been picked up from Jim, and on screen Jim elbows Tony in another affectionate gesture they’re all long familiar with, and Steve’s guts are still twisted into knots.

Bucky’s face is wan, his whole body stiff, but he reaches up with his remaining hand and waves to the crowd, and smiles, and the camera flashes are visible on the screen, almost blinding.

Someone at the bar flags down the bartender, and suddenly the TV is unmuted. Steve realizes that he’s watching the tv screen too closely, for someone who’s supposed to be here casually, but he can’t drag his eyes away.

Cameras are flashing, and he can’t see the reporter who yells Bucky’s name first, but suddenly all of the audio is shouts of his name and questions that Steve can’t make out and _he needs to be there._

Tony’s there, and Tony steps to center stage so he almost misses the moment when Bucky speaks, loud and clear and confident, because he always was so good at fake bravado, and he hears him both over the earpiece and the TV.

“I didn’t bomb the United Nations. I’m here to help the UN with its investigation.”

In the background, UN security officials are approaching. Sam steps on his foot from across the table, and he realizes that his whole body is tense. He forces himself to breathe and take a sip of coffee as he hears Jim’s voice on the other end of the line. _“Mr. Barnes is here voluntarily and  in good faith.”_

When he looks back up at the screen, Tony’s taken back the limelight, the screen filling with holograms to either side of him, because of course he does, because he’s Tony Stark and he’s always in technicolor.

“This is the footage of the Vienna bombing used to accuse Mr. Barnes. This is footage in Bucharest twenty minutes later. Now, in a Stark jet, you can get to Bucharest from Vienna, pretty quick, but you can’t do that in twenty minutes. You can’t do that in my Iron Man armor, and I can tell you that Mr. Barnes didn’t have that.”

Tony’s talking about the footage and the timing and jets and Iron Man and Stark, Stark, Stark, and Steve’s fingers are digging into the arms of his chair so hard he’s afraid it will crack. _Of-fucking-course_ it’s all about him, he thinks, as Stark keeps highlighting the flaws in the video footage. Only Tony Stark could somehow make this all about his tech, reduce things down to a fancy slideshow when Bucky’s life hung in the balance.

He doesn’t quite register when Tony turns away from the camera, conferring with Jim and Bucky as the security team converges on them.

He hears Tony’s voice over the coms. _“You did great, kid, you’re gonna be America’s sweetheart in no time.”_

There’s so much warmth in Tony’s voice that Steve’s anger curls up and curdles into guilt, because whatever the theatrics, whatever the irrepressible, egotistical Stark-ness of it, Tony’s doing this to protect someone who -

_Tony doesn’t know._

But if Tony did know - if he had told him before, after DC - this could never have happened. Tony could never have done this if he had known. And if Tony doing this, shepherding Bucky through the press and Ross and the rest - if that saves him? A sin of omission for a life is more than worth it, he tells himself. He can tell Tony afterwards, Tony can be as angry as he likes when Bucky is safe.

It doesn’t change the cold feeling in his stomach as Tony stands between the cameras and Bucky, as Bucky is chained, handcuffed to Jim - Jim, who he hears asking over comms whether Bucky is okay, Jim, who will be just as furious when he finds out Steve lied.

Tony stands and speaks to the crowd that is shouting his name.

“You wanna know what I think? This is just me, no lawyers, no UN approval - just me? I think we’ve all spent the past thirty hours chasing the wrong guy. And now, I don’t know about you, but when somebody blows up the United Nations, I like to get the right guy. I’m not really all that fond of the idea that the bastard that did this is wandering around out there, thinking he got off without consequences. I’ve got news for you, buddy. There are going to be consequences.

“And you know what else I’m not fond of? I don’t know about you, but stringing up Bucky Barnes without a trial sounds downright un-American to me - no offense to the German press here, you understand.”

Over coms he hears Jim say, _“Yeah, I’m fine here, thanks.”_

Tony’s still talking on the screen, he can hear him in the background on coms as well. “‘Habeas corpus’ - right to a trial, pretty common concept, we’ve got it, you guys have got it-” Paragraphs of the German and US constitutions are floating, conveniently next to Tony’s head. “We tend to get into trouble when we try and forget it.”

He doesn’t hear anything from Jim or Bucky, and he can’t stay quiet any longer. “Are you both okay in there?”

Jim asks, _“How are you feeling?”_

So there are others watching them closely, they can’t talk freely. He bites his lip. There’s _so much_ he needs to ask, not least of which is why Bucky’s left arm is missing.

 _“Fine,”_ Bucky says, and Steve lets out a little sigh.

“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!” On the screen, the voice of one reporter rises above the others, he sees a blonde ponytail move past the camera to the front of the reporters.  “Are you saying the UN is pushing to detain Mr. Barnes without trial?”

“Here’s what I’m saying. I’m saying, this kid - Bucky Barnes could have been shot in the street on orders before he ever made it here to make a claim of his innocence.” Steve feels cold. He’d - of course he’d known, but there’s something about how Tony says it -  

“You know what else I’m saying?” He takes the microphone away from the reporter, looks straight at the camera. “I’m saying, we’ve all been so busy chasing the Winter Soldier, we missed that James Buchanan Barnes is America’s longest serving Prisoner Of War.” He pushes the microphone back towards the reporter, turns away and makes for the door. “That’s all I’ve got for you. You want more, call your congressman. Tell em we gotta Free Bucky. We gotta get this done.”

On the screen, the scene cuts away as Tony walks into the UN and it cuts to an anchorwoman. “That was Tony Stark, better known to some as Iron Man, making a surprising defense of James Buchanan Barnes, the alleged Winter Soldier, who has been accused of the bombing of the UN. We’re still pulling together our own analysis of the footage Mr. Stark presented -”

“Damn,” Sam says, and Steve had completely missed him pulling out his phone. “It’s already trending.”

“What?”

“‘Free Bucky’ and ‘Longest Serving POW’. And ‘Habeas Corpus’, which is fairly impressive. I didn’t realize that many people knew how to spell that.”

Sam doesn’t know either. Sam has no idea why there’s a cold pit of guilt in his stomach.

“Steve?” Sam signs, “You okay?”

“Fine,” Steve signs back, grateful that Clint had gotten them to learn some ASL. “Let’s take a walk.”

Sam just looks at him skeptically.

“A touristy walk. See the sights,” Steve signs.

Sam shrugs and nods.

On the other end of the line, he can hear Tony snarking at someone off-comm, probably a UN official.

“ _No, I don’t think this is a game. Games have rules.”_

Steve bites his lip.

Sam takes his arm and walks with him out of the cafe, as Tony continues to snark on the other end of the line.

_“Sorry guys, you know how paparazzi are,”_

_“Yeah, and what tabloid headlines should we expect you to be making today?”_ Jim asks.

_“Well, I’m claiming that this cryptid of the intelligence community is not only real but a former World War two soldier who was BFFs with our very own supersoldier and was set up for a crime by mysterious, unknown figures, so I think the tabloid headline is our life.”_

Sam stifles a snort next to him, then looks at him with a raised eyebrow when he sees Steve unsmiling. “Hey, your shit’s weird. I’ve just accepted that,” he signs.

Steve smiles a little at that, and signs back. “ _‘_ Cause you were living such a normal life before I met you _._ ”

 _“_ It’s all relative _._ ”

 _“- the King arrives.”_ The mention of T’challa makes Steve refocus on the conversation on the other end of the line.

 _“T’challa. The bomb killed his dad.”_ Jim’s voice - he must be explaining to Bucky.

_Bucky killed Tony’s dad._

Focus. If Jim's explaining that means T’challa isn’t in the room yet.

He doesn’t know what to expect of the new King of Wakanda. He doesn’t know that much about him - outside of Wakanda, he doubts many people do - but he knows Natasha respects him, which says a lot, in his book.

Right now, though, an unknown threat is the last thing he wants in the room with Bucky.

_“Your majesty, our sympathies for your loss.”_

He listens intently, desperate to know what is _happening_ in that room. He regrets not making Jim agree to have him come to the UN, or just showing up anyway. He listens so hard he almost thinks he can hear Bucky breathe, breathing faster. He quickens his pace.

_“See, I’ve got pretty compelling evidence here that he didn’t. And - look, I respect what you’re trying to do, but if there’s even a hint of a doubt, do you want to risk the chance that you just let the man who killed your father go?”_

He feels like he could choke.

_“Do you want to risk the chance that you just let the man who killed your father go?”_

Tony, who’s sitting in the room with his father’s killer.

He can’t be sure of that, though. And Tony doesn’t know. He doesn’t have to.

He finally refocuses to hear _“Your analytics are better than ours. If I’m wrong, tell me. But if I’m right - you - you help us catch the real guy.”_

A pause.

_“Then I’m wrong, and you hire the best prosecutor and push for extradition. Ross certainly isn’t going to stop you.”_

This was _not_ the deal. He grits out _“_ Tony, _”_ over comms, hoping that somehow it’ll pull him out of left field, though he can’t say he has that good of a track record.

Tony ignores him. _“But if I’m right, and something you find on their helps us catch the real guy - you really want to pass that up?”_ A pause again. _“Thank you,”_

Sam looks over at him. “Well, that’s some good news,” he signs.

Bucky’s voice draws his attention away again. _“I’m sorry about your father.”_

Steve’s breath catches in his chest at the sound of his voice, so much so that he barely even registers what Jim says next.

 _“That was a fucking miracle.”_ He hears Tony say at the other end of the line. _“I don’t know how he’s doing it. Playing politics and beat cop after - after what happened. Anyone else - I don’t know how he’s doing it.”_

And he hears the catch in Tony’s voice, and he can guess ‘anyone else’ means himself.

In all his thoughts about what would happen if Tony knew about - about what and who had most likely, if he’s honest with himself, happened to Tony’s parents - he hadn’t thought about the event itself any more than he’d had to. Certainly not who Tony had been at the time, where he had been when he heard. All he knew was that he had been twenty-one, only a few years younger than Steve had been when he joined the army. Three years older than he’d been when his mother had died. And yet - it’s still hard to picture Tony, so much younger than he’d been when Steve had first met him. Howard had been a year older than Steve when they first met, but when he tries to imagine Tony as a younger Howard it doesn’t - quite fit.

He struggles with the image as Tony talks about independent verification and Ross.

 _“If we’re going to need to get him to back putting teams out to try and find the real bomber -”_ Jim says on the other end of the line.

 _“If the Wakandan team verifies what we’ve seen, and gives us another lead - I think they’ll make that case for us. No,”_ Tony says, _“What I’m worried about is if Ross tries to move him - move you - or have you moved, rather,”_ And Steve’s slightly reassured that he’s talking directly to Bucky, but only very slightly, _“Somewhere ‘pending a trial,’ nominally. We’ll need to make the case for keeping everything in the public eye, and show that - that you’re acting in good faith.”_

Relying on the public eye and ‘good faith.’ Relying on _Ross_ to care about either of those things, because that always worked out well.

“I don’t like this.” He says. Sam looks at him with an eyebrow raised like, _yeah, no shit, what did you expect?_

 _“Listen to me - listen,”_ Jim says, _“Whatever happens, whatever they want - I’ll stay with him. We’ll make that a condition.”_

Jim’s one of the best soldiers he’s ever had the honor of working with, but that doesn’t ameliorate the fact that it’s not _him_ in the room. _He_ should be the one watching Bucky’s back; as Bucky’s been the one always watching his.

But Jim’s voice is sincere and earnest, and Steve’s always known he could trust him to keep his word.

 _“I’m already getting the War Machine armor here,”_ Tony says, then adds. _“Well this should be interesting. Have you checked Twitter?”_

Sam, already on his phone, chuckles. Steve reaches for his phone to feel it already vibrating in his pocket.

Nat’s texted him. _On my way._

Sure enough, as he hears Tony start to talk to Ross, Natasha rounds the corner.

“My favorite place for pretzels is just on the next block,” she signs as she sees them, “Come on.”

The pretzel stand is just outside a larger cafe.

“Sam,” Natasha signs, “can you duck in and check the news? I want to keep an eye on this. And if you grabbed me a latte I wouldn’t say no,” she adds.

As Sam leaves, Natasha turns to Steve, frowning.

“Does Tony know?” Nat signs.

“No.”

She sighs. “Played it close to the chest,” she signs.

Steve just nods.

“You’re spending too much time around me,” Nat signs, and laughs softly and humorlessly. “This is all about to blow up in our faces.”

“What, you think I should have _told_ him?” he signs, guilt sharpening his gestures.

Nat starts to sign something, but he ignores her.

“ _You_ didn’t tell him.”

“No. No,” Natasha signs. “ I didn’t. And -” She sighs. “I didn’t - see the good in dragging it up, again. I - burying things is something of my specialty. But now -” She half-laughs. “- it’s all going to get dragged up, you understand that?”

“It doesn’t have to.”

“Oh, we aren’t that lucky.”

“Then - it was always going to get dragged up. Whenever I found him.”

Nat smiles at him, weakly, and he realizes in that moment that she’d never believed that would happen.

 _“Lieutenant Barnes has acted in good faith,”_ Jim says, on the other end of the line, shaking Steve out of his distraction..

“Hang on,” he signs to Nat, “I want to listen.”

 _“He turned himself in and has been perfectly cooperative throughout the process,”_ Jim continues.

 _“I didn’t run,”_ Bucky says, his voice echoing the memory of what he’d said, less than an hour earlier, _“I wanted Tony to bring me - here. I didn’t know how to come in myself and not be shot.”_ No matter how many times he hears it, it still hurts his chest to hear. _“Someone bombed the United Nations. It’s important that you know who.”_

_“If Lieutenant Barnes had wanted to run, he could have. If he had wanted to prevent us from bringing him to the UN, he could have. This wasn’t a fight, Mr. Secretary.”_

A pause, then Bucky speaks again. _“I asked them to take it off, I - I don’t want anything from Hydra still on me.”_

 _They’re talking about his arm_ , Steve realizes, as _I asked them_ rings in his head.

 _“Another show of good faith,”_ Tony says, and he can’t believe he had thought for a second that Tony would do - do that in cold blood.

“We can get through this,” he signs at Natasha, who’s been watching him closely, as Tony starts listing off the officials who’ve stood up for Bucky, “This part, we can get through. Making sure Bucky’s safe is the hard part. When it gets dragged up, it gets dragged up. We’ll deal with it together.”

Nat laughs. “Yeah, I’m sure Tony will really be feeling the togetherness,” she signs, Tony’s voice still ringing on the other end of the line

“You really think this would be easier if Tony knew?” Steve signs, “Natasha, we don’t even know if this wasn’t Hydra putting -”

“You know it’s not,” Natasha signs, “Steve. You know it’s not. You might not want to believe it but -”

“Yeah,” Steve signs.

Natasha just watches him.

“I remember Howard, you know,” Steve signs, “I never met Maria but - Howard was a friend.”

“Yeah,” Natasha signs, “Of course.”

They stand for a long moment.

“You think I should have told him?”

“I think -” Nat signs, frowning slightly “I think that depends on how this all plays out.”

And, again, he can’t help thinking about what Bucky said -

_“You have a good team. Good friends.”_

And he can’t help but feel that same guilt.

 _“Absolutely. No need to put anyone in danger,”_ Tony says on the other end, after a long pause. _“That’s why I’m recommending we put the best we’ve got in there with him.”_

 _Him_ must be Bucky, right? But where are they putting him? In with a lawyer?

Nat just shrugs when he looks at her questioningly. Sam comes back out and waves them into the cafe.

They grab seats near the TV, but it’s not enough. He wonders, wishing more than ever that he was in the room, if Tony’s tech could ever be modified to be able to pick up surrounding conversations.

_“You want security? We can give you the toughest soldier on our team.”_

_There’s absolutely no way Tony is trying to get me in the room._ He thinks, not daring to half hope.

And of course, he’s right. _“What? No. Last I heard Steve was off sightseeing. Last time he was in Germany things were pretty rough, and he didn’t get to do a lot of the touristy stuff. Plus, a lot’s changed since then.”_

Sam’s doing a bad job of hiding his laughter behind a fist. Nat is smirking.

_“No, I was talking about Colonel Rhodes. The War Machine armor is already on its way here, if that helps.”_

They are still keeping their promise, he supposes, smiling just a little.

_“Oh! Is that the Chinese representatives to the United Nations calling to tell us we’re hypocrites on human rights? Because they just did on Twitter.”_

Nat pulls out her phone, her smirk growing wider.

 _“Okay, should I be worried about how much you enjoy messing with important political leaders?”_ Jim says, and that must mean Ross has left the room.

 _“If it helps, I also really like bragging about you,”_ Tony says, teasing, but with genuine warmth, _“I hate these people, Rhodey,”_ he says, with sudden vitriol - so much so that it surprises Steve. Nat frowns. _“I just - I spent an hour grovelling to this guy to keep him from putting a manhunt out for Ro-”_ He stops abruptly, but Steve can tell that he meant to say ‘Rogers’. ‘Tony’ and ‘grovelling’ can hardly fit in the same sentence in his head. “ _Now - now that we don’t_ absolutely _have a gun to our heads, I - I want to make him eat shit.”_

_have a gun to our heads_

He’s not - he’s not _used_ to Tony sounding as angry as Steve _feels,_ not sincerely, not without sarcasm.

 _“Yeah. Yeah,”_ Jim says, and the vitriol in his voice is just as strong. _“Me too, believe me. But there’s a place to remind him we’ve got leverage without going straight to pissing him off. That’s not going to make this any easier,”_ Jim says. Reasonable. _“Especially not with - earlier.”_

A sigh. “ _Would it be too much for this to be enough of a distraction that everyone could just - forget about that?”_

Steve’s struggling to think of what they’re talking about when Natasha lifts her hands and makes their namesign for Wanda.

Oh. _That_ earlier.

 _“Not with our luck,”_ Jim says, and Steve doesn’t understand how he’d forgotten about - that. Well, he does, it was because of Bucky, but -  

 _Distracted,_ he thinks to himself, Rumlow’s voice in his head as Jim and Tony’s voices continue.

_“But we can piss him off afterwards, right? That is what you’re saying.”_

_“Hell yes.”_

_“Sounds good to me,”_ Bucky says, and he sounds - almost amused? And Steve can’t help but smile.

 _“Okay, well, if_ Barnes _agrees I’ll go with it,”_ Tony says, teasing.

He looks over at Sam and Natasha, who are both trying to smother their laughter as Jim and Tony banter back and forth.

“Have you two had this exact conversation?” Nat signs.

“I have never claimed to be a voice of reason _in my life_ ,” Sam signs with mock-affront.

 _“You doing okay?”_ Jim asks - presumably Bucky. _“I mean, you good with this?”_ A pause. _“Yeah, fair enough.”_

He can’t help but wish Bucky could have _said_ something in response.

 _“Are_ you _okay with this?”_ Tony asks.

_“Hey, flattery will get you everywhere.”_

_“I can be in there with you, you know. I could move the armor just as easily -”_

_“Tony. It’s okay. It doesn’t make sense to put both of us in there, and you’re more useful out here -”_

Steve forces himself to relax his jaw. He wishes he was there, or at the very least in a better position to call the plays.

 _“Making noise for the cameras, I know. I’m good at that,”_ Tony says, and he can’t help but notice the edge of bitterness in his voice - maybe he’d just missed it before.

_“And I am the Big Gun.”_

_“Well -”_

Finally, he can’t help but speak. “We’re close by.” He says, half hoping that Tony will suggest they move in.

 _“It’s fine. It’s going to be fine,”_ Tony says, but it doesn’t sound as reassuring as it’s meant.

 _“Well, this should be fun,”_ Tony continues after a pause. _“Hey, if the shrink asks about your childhood, will you have any embarrassing stories about Steve?”_

Sam completely fails to stifle his laughter. Nat leans in and smiles - to make it look like he’s laughing at a joke she told, he realizes.

And he can’t help but think of the countless memories - embarrassing and otherwise - he shares with Bucky. Wonders how many Bucky still remembers.

 _“Ah, good timing. You’re going to want to get that,”_ Tony says.

 _“Now that’s what I’m talking about,”_ Jim says, and he knows what _that_ is, that’s a tone of voice that Jim reserves only for the War Machine.

 _“You good?”_ Tony says after a long pause.

 _“All set,”_ Jim says, and he can hear the slight reverberation that must mean he’s inside the suit.

 _“Alright, have fun with the shrink. Be sure that he asks for those embarrassing stories about Rogers,”_ Tony says, but for all the levity Steve can hear his worry.

 _“Ridiculous,”_ Jim says.

The comms are silent for a long while.

Nat’s staring at him, and he realizes that he’s got his jaw clenched and his shoulders up by his ears again.

“There’s a cafe nearer the headquarters,” she signs. He nods, and they make their way out, the owner frowning slightly at them as they leave - for a moment Steve’s afraid he’s been recognized, but then he realizes that they’re leaving without having bought anything.

It’s only a few blocks to the cafe Nat suggests, but Steve could curse the street noise that might make him miss something important.

As Nat waves them towards the new cafe - the headquarters in sight - Steve hears Jim ask _“You’re the UN psychiatrist?”_ Then, after a pause, _“Lieutenant Barnes.”_ Jim adds, sharply, correcting, and Steve feels a wave of affection for him.

 _“My name is -”_ Bucky starts, and - “ _People called me Bucky.”_ And Steve -

He doesn’t know how to feel about that.

 _“I don’t want to talk about it,”_ Bucky says, and he wonders what _that_ is. There’s - so much of Bucky’s past that he doesn’t know, now. So much of the Winter Soldier’s.

 _“Are you okay?”_ Jim says and, whatever prompted him to ask that, Steve _needs to know._

 _“How did you become a psychiatrist?”_ Bucky asks, and - Steve’s stomach just drops. Because if something’s throwing Bucky off, if he’s trying to find out if this guy is for real in a way they can all hear -

_This is a setup._

“ _Boss,”_ he hears Friday say across comms. “ _An explosion at the power station has brought down power to the whole building.”_

_Oh god, no._

He stands up abruptly, sees Sam do the same.

_“Boost the signal on Barnes and Rhodey’s pieces and get me any cameras that are still running on backup power. I’m coming down, Rhodey, what’s going on down there?”_

“Guys, do we need to move in?” He says on comm, as though he isn’t already out of the cafe and halfway down the street.

 _“Assemble.”_ He hears Bucky’s voice on the comm, and starts running. _“ Assemble!! Assemble!! Rhodey is down, the doctor attacked him,_ **_Assemble_ ** _!”_

“ _The War Machine suit is down but I’m picking up Colonel Rhodes’ pulse through the comlink. I’m running a full search on Dr. Boussard right now,”_ Friday says, and a computer program shouldn’t be able to sound that frightened, or concerned.

 _“If he hurt Rhodey he’s dead already,_ ” Tony _snarls,_ and Steve flinches even though the rage isn’t directed at him.

(He can’t remember if he’s ever, really, been _scared_ by Tony before.)

“We’re coming in!”

“Right behind you!” Sam shouts, the jumble of his voice, already several dozen yards behind, shouted through the air and heard over the comms.

And he hears Bucky _howl_ on the other end of the line, and he can’t even hear anything the UN security officers are saying before he’s bowling through them.

He’s not going to let Bucky fall again -

_not again not again not again_

\- and he kicks down the door -

“Bucky, hold on, we’re coming, we’re in the building just hold on -” he says, desperately - he doesn’t know what’s happening but anything that can make Bucky sound like _that_ \- he feels like his chest is on fire.

Sharon runs towards him as soon as he’s in the building. “This way!” and he follows her past security down the stairs and  Bucky is screaming and Sharon is saying something but he can’t focus on anyone else over the sound -

\- until he hears Tony start to shout “ _Rhodey - Rhodey!”_

And he can hear Jim cursing - sounds of movement and metallic clankings on the line and Jim is conscious and he’s _there_ , not at least five, six flights of stairs away, he can -

\- and the boosted earpieces from Jim and Bucky pick up the doctor’s voice, staticky but there, and he’s saying words in Russian that don’t make sense -

\- and there’s - there’s sounds of a fight and he doesn’t - he doesn’t know what’s happening and Sharon and Sam are far behind him now as he leaps down -

 _“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, but you’re under arrest!_ ” Jim shouts, and he hears it over the comm, and he hears - he hears the doctor laugh - they must be very close, he thinks distantly, for the comm to be picking it up - and say just - one more word in Russian and -

_“Barnes? Barnes! What the hell - BARNES!”_

_“Soldier,”_ the doctor says and no, no no no no no Bucky’s falling he didn’t catch him he _failed Bucky -_

_“Ready to comply.”_

And the words in Bucky’s voice, low and dead, make the air in his lungs go cold and he’s going to lose Bucky again and he can’t -

_“Barnes - snap out of it - stop -”_

_“Kill the Colonel.”_

His head is on fire and he’s going to kill this doctor if Tony doesn’t get there first.

 _“Oh, no no no no, we are_ not _doing this today -”_ He hears Rhodey say, just as Tony shouts _“RHODEY!”_ on the other end of the comms, and he’s still four flights of stairs away.

_“Come on, Barnes, pull it together, don’t make me - ”_

And then all he can hear are fists landing and the sound of Bucky’s breathing and Rhodey -

**“** **_RHODES!”_ **

That sounded like someone hitting the ground. A cement floor. Hard.

And then - he recognizes the sound of Tony’s gauntlet’s blasting through metal and concrete, loud enough for comms to catch it, he’s learned it well, followed by two loud blasts, and the sound of one body hitting concrete.

“ _Colonel Rhodes' pulse is still strong.”_ Friday says, and then there’s - impact. And another blast, Tony breathing heavily.

_“Come on Barnes, time to pull it together -”_

Impact. Impact. There are too many stairs -

 _“Go find your comrades, Soldier. Go find your brethren.”_ He hears the doctor say, staticky. Gasping.

_Blast._

“ _Captain, Mr. Barnes is heading towards the South exit.”_ Friday says in his ear.

“I’m in pursuit.” Steve says, changing direction, back up the stairs to the quickest route to the south exit.

 _“Already moving to intercept with Agent 13”_ Natasha says.

Sam shouts _“I need to get airborne. I’m heading for the roof!”_

He opens his mouth to ask if Tony has the doctor contained and -

“ _Rhodes? Rhodey. Jim, talk to me.”_

Steve almost feels like he shouldn’t be listening. He’s sure Tony’s forgotten he’s still on comms, and -

He’s honestly not sure if he’s ever heard Tony sound like this before.

Rhodey coughs.

“ _Hey. Hey. Take it easy.”_

_“You came in here without a suit?”_

Tony laughs, just a brief quick huff of disbelief. “ _I do have a suit, it’s a very nice three piece -_ ”

“ _Tones._ ”

“ _\- also, I’m noticing you’re distinctly lacking a suit, I’m hurt, Rhodeybear, we built that suit together_ -”

Rhodey laughs.

“ _You had me worried.”_ Tony says, more softly.

“ _Man, I am never letting you stick me with babysitting duty again.”_

“ _Yeah. Yeah. I’m sorry, Rhodey. I should never have -_ ”

“ _Tones. It’s okay. I’m gonna be fine. I just -”_ Jim sighs. “ _I really need a vacation.”_

_“I’ll take you. After this. Somewhere in the Caribbean. After this is over, we’ll both need one. Beaches, drinks with umbrellas, I’m picturing you in a cute little red speedo -”_

_“Okay,”_ Natasha cuts in, reminding the two of them that they’re still broadcasting. _“If you guys need to have a reunion makeout session, I’m gonna need you to do it off-comms.”_

Rhodey laughs and Tony makes exaggerated lip-smacking noises on the comm.

“ _The doctor’s still out cold.”_

 _“Doctor Boussard,”_ Friday says as Steve runs, “ _Has been replaced by Helmut Zemo. Facial recognition on the individual who entered the UN does not match documented footage of Doctor Boussard. Zemo is a former Sokovian military officer. I’ve found footage showing him meeting with Doctor Boussard, the last time footage of Doctor Boussard appears in Berlin. I’ve also tracked him from the Hotel the fake Winter Soldier emerged from.”_

 _“Nice work, Friday.”_ Sam says over the comms, Steve can’t stomach any kind words over the way his blood is suddenly white-hot, the way fire in his stomach is eating him alive.

_He set him up he took him away he deserves to -_

“ _Engaging Barnes.”_  Natasha says over the comm, and he lets the fire make him run faster, make him -

He can hear it and he _doesn’t know what’s happening_ he hates this he -

 _“Sharon -”_ And then Nat is cut off and he hears the others shouting her name over the comm line and -

He runs.

There’s a landing pad and a helicopter and he won’t do this again he won’t he’s going to catch Bucky and if it means they both have to fall then so be it because he won’t do this again -

He won’t do this again, and so they both fall.

He’s the one to drag Bucky to the side of the river this time.

For a minute, he’s afraid - Bucky’s very still, and, god, if he’s -

And Bucky heaves in a sudden breath, and starts to cough violently.

“Buck -?”

And he looks at Steve, wild eyed, and seizes his shoulder with his good arm, and for a moment Steve is worried that this is still the other Bucky, but then he says, “Rhodey - did I hurt him?” And Steve knows who he’s talking to. “He was in the room - oh god, please tell me he’s okay.”

And Steve feels something crack, just a little, in some indefinable way. “He’s gonna be fine. Tony’s got him.”

“Oh, god -” and Bucky curls up a little, head in his hands.

Sam touches down moments later, sees Bucky curled up. He takes out his comm carefully.

“Call it, Cap,” he says, still watching

Steve reaches up to his ear, and then stops. “We -” He starts, looking at Bucky, who’s peering out from above his hands at the UN building, where Natasha and Sharon are, where Tony and Rhodey are.

“We’re coming back in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you next week for the epilogue!


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things must come to an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know that linear, single POV chapter structure we've had up till now? Yeah, buckle up and kiss that goodbye, we've got flashbacks like we're in "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" up in here. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with this fic till the end.

6 MONTHS LATER

When Steve gets out of the car, Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey are already standing in the cemetery, grouped together, near a line of graves.

He’d visited Howard’s grave only once before; he hadn’t ever imagined he’d be back here. Still, he finds he remembers the place, the wrought iron gate, the tall oaks, the larger statues and mausoleums in the distance.

Sam joins him walking through the gate. As they enter the cemetery, he finally sees Bucky, and, in the distance, Natasha, and Vision floating amongst headstones. He still half expects to see Wanda with the rest of the team, despite the fact that she had already called to say that her classes and training upstate were keeping her too busy to make it down.

Sam looks over at him. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” He says. “Yeah, let’s go.”

\---

\---

EARLIER

Tony is sitting next to Jim, who’s propped up on a couch in the office, medical staff hovering around him. They’re both - well, mostly Tony - arguing with Ross.

“You’re telling me, after Colonel Rhodes was nearly killed, you don’t want this man locked up -”

“I’m saying the exact same thing I was saying when I got here: _I want a trial._ And we have evidence that Barnes wasn’t acting of his own free will when he attacked Rhodey -”

“Extremely dubious evidence, in the eyes of -”

“Why call for help before if -” Tony turns, sees that Steve and Sam have entered. “Why call in _Captain America_ for help if he really wanted to pull off some ‘crime of the century’ -”

“Why call in an accomplice, you mean,” Ross says, glaring at Steve.

“If the goal was to get away I think Cap’s doing a pretty poor accomplicing job. Besides,” Tony continues, “he also called in Natasha, Wilson, and myself, and -”

“Over an unauthorized comm line -”

“And without that Rhodey would be _dead!_ ” Tony yells. “Don’t try to play the outrage game with me, Mr. Secretary, you’ll lose.”

“Stark, you have been-”

“The following -” Natasha says, entering the room carrying a red journal, “are command words for the Winter Soldier. They should be recited in order when the Soldier is removed from stasis or completes a wipe, or if it should be noncompliant while on-mission. The command words will allow the Soldier to be provided with fresh orders.” Natasha then switches to Russian, reciting a series of words - Sam’s not quite sure, but he recognizes the cadence as the words - if he had to guess, he’d say they’re the same words he heard over the comm. “Those,” she says, “were the words Helmut Zemo said to _reset_ James Buchanan Barnes into the Winter Soldier. I’m sure,” she adds, “Colonel Rhodes and the others can verify what they heard, and the security tapes will bear it out.”

“And,” Tony says, “I’m sure you can have someone from the Russian delegation verify Natasha’s translation, if there remains any doubt as to whether Sergeant Barnes was in control of his actions.”

“You understand that we can’t have Barnes unsecured. The last time I let you make decisions about his security -”

“I’m sorry, this coming from the people whose security was so top-tier that they missed the fact that their shrink had been replaced with a murderer and a terrorist? Like, did you miss the intro lesson on id cards?” Tony says. “What happened back there is on you, not Barnes, not us. And if you don’t think that’s getting out there, you should check Twitter,” he says, flicking the screen of his phone to project tweets. “Friday may have sent out some footage. And some files. Also, I might have given a teleconference interview.”

Ross looks around to the nearest TV screen and grimaces.

“Barnes _is_ going to see a lawyer. But yeah, feel free to go put out that fire.”

Ross looks like he’s about to snap back, but thinks better of it.

After he leaves, Sam starts in - “Okay, we were gone for _fifteen minutes._ ”

“What can I say, I work fast,” Tony says. “Where’s Barnes?”

 

\---

\---

 

Barnes looks up as Steve walks over.

“Are you alright?”

He shrugs.

“You don’t have to -” Steve starts, “you don’t have to stay. If you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, I do.”

He holds a single flower and a photograph in his hands as he watches Tony, followed by Rhodey and Pepper, walk towards Howard and Maria’s graves.

 

\---

\---

 

“So you’re the guy,” Tony says, as he sits down across from Helmut Zemo and picks up the phone, four inches of glass between them.

“The ‘guy’?”

“The guy who blew up the UN. Who tried to set Sergeant Barnes up. Who tried to kill Colonel Rhodes, and, as far as I can tell, would have tried to take control of five more brainwashed supersoldiers.”

“Is that what you thought I was doing?” Zemo laughs. “‘Sergeant Barnes tried to kill Colonel Rhodes, Mr. Stark, not me.”

“On _your_ orders, when _you_ brainwashed him. Looks to me like the fingers are pointing at you. But I’ll wait for the court case. Should be interesting.”

“So quick to rush to his defense, Mr. Stark. I wonder if you would be if you knew what really happened to your parents.”

“What, that ‘the Winter Soldier’ killed them? Yeah, Barnes told me that like, five minutes after I met him,” Tony says.

“Barnes told you.”

“Ye-ah,” Tony says. “I’m sorry, was that supposed to be a surprise? Was that your big plan?”

“Barnes…” Zemo chuckles. “Do you think you’re the first person on your team to know about this?”

Tony stares at him. “Really. This was your plan.” Tony watches him. “It was. Really. Well, that was a bit underwhelming, to be honest. Might want to work on that.” He adds, “You can’t possibly be too terribly surprised that it failed.”

“Did it, Mr. Stark?” Zemo smiles at him.

Tony looks him dead in the eye and hangs up the phone. He turns around, heads for the door, reaches for the handle - and then turns back around. Considers Zemo. Zemo and his question.

In a few quick strides, he crosses back across the room and picks up the phone.

“Yep,” he says, popping the p.

 

\---

\---

 

“Are you alright?”

Tony forces himself to stop gripping the bouquet of flowers so hard. He can feel that some of the stems have broken in his hands.

“I’ll be fine,” he says to Pepper. “Can’t keep standing around forever.”

“Do you want us to -?” Rhodey asks.

“No I - I think I should just - yeah.”

“We’ll be right here.” Rhodey says, and Tony holds the flowers carefully as he makes his way to the gravestone.

 

\---

\---

 

He shuts the door behind him, putting Zemo out of sight, and thank god, Rhodey’s there. He immediately slumps against the wall.

“You heard?”

“Yeah,” Rhodey says, “I wanted - we just got word that he’s going to be extradited to Wakanda.”

“ _Good,_ ” Tony spits. “I hope T’challa gets to - I hope he -” He sputters himself into silence.

Rhodey reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder, tracing slow circles with his thumb. “You did good.”

“I need to go hit something. Maybe Cap. Probably Cap. We got any Cap shaped punching bags around here? I feel like that’s something we should have.”

“Tones,”

Tony takes a deep breath. “I’ll be okay,” he says. “Just - probably not right this second.”

“You want to call Dr. Keyworth?”

“No - no, I gotta get this done.”

 

\---

\---

 

Bucky has a slight frown on his face as he watches Tony, standing in front of Howard and Maria’s headstones.

Steve stops himself from saying ‘Buck?’ - it’s a habit that’s hard to break, even when he’s asked to start going by Barnes. It had been Buc - Barnes’ idea, and Dr. Keyworth had thought it was a healthy way to distance himself from the expectation of ‘becoming’ the old Bucky Barnes again.

It still feels - off, to say “Barnes?” instead, but he wants him to be happy, and that’s what matters. He’ll get over feeling uncomfortable with calling him ‘Barnes’ soon enough, he hopes, and in any case, it’s his - Steve’s - problem, not Barnes’.

Barnes breaks away from looking at Tony to look at Steve. “Yeah?”

“You alright?”

“I - I should -” He tilts his head in the direction of the graves.

Steve tries not to frown. “Give him a few minutes. It’s okay.”

 

\---

\---

 

“- and taking into consideration that Barnes voluntarily provided essential testimony to find and disable the secondary Winter Soldier facility -”

“Yes, it’s in my notes,” Jennifer tells Tony.

Steve hadn’t known what to expect from a lawyer that Tony had called, but it certainly hadn’t been Jennifer Walters. He’s found himself liking her, quite unexpectedly.

Though he supposes he’d like her more if they’d met under better circumstances.

“And your testimony?”

“It’s ready.”

Jennifer waits. “And?”

Tony sighs. “Do you _have_ to see it?”

“As I’m his lawyer, and you asked me to be here, that would be customary, yes.”

Tony fidgets with the strap of the watch on his wrist - not a watch, a gauntlet. “Barnes can read it,” he says, finally, looking over at Bucky. “You can decide if you want Jennifer to review it. It’s fine if you want her to, just - no one else.”

“Tony -” Steve starts, but he stops when Jennifer starts speaking.

“Tony, this trial - your testimony - it’s going to be all over the news _everywhere_. There’ll be - you won’t - “ She sighs. “Whatever’s in there, it isn’t going to be private. Don’t you think it’ll be better if you - if you talk this through beforehand, with -”

“C’mon, Jen,” Tony says, with a strained attempt at casual, “you know that’s not how I roll.”

She stares at him, deadpan.

“I’d just -” he adds, “I want to get this done with all at once. Just - rip the bandaid off. No point teasing at the edges.”

Steve can’t help but feel like he’s missing something. Bucky looks uncomfortable, and he wonders if -

No. There’s no way he knows.

“Well, it’s your funeral,” Jennifer says.

“Don’t I know it.”

“So you’ll -”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony says, “I’ll send you my testimony.” He tells Bucky, as he stands up.

“Tony -” Steve starts again.

“I -” Tony says, “desperately need a coffee. Jen?”

“Thank god, yeah, I could go for an espresso. You’re buying.”

“Of course.”

“Rogers, I’m pretty sure caffeine doesn’t affect super soldiers, so you’re on Barnes duty,” he says with an attempted grin, fading into a kind of weak half-smile as he and Jen make their way out of the secure room. When the door closes behind them, Bucky slumps in his chair.

“He shouldn’t have to do this,” Bucky says.

“Do what, Buck?”

“Get up there, and _defend_ me, when I -” He looks up at Steve suddenly, eyes wide.

“Bucky?”

“Steve - Tony - I - I killed his parents. I killed Howard and Maria.” Bucky hangs his head. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”

“It’s _not_ okay,” he says sharply, then subsides. “He doesn’t deserve that.”

Steve breathes in and stays very still. “Does he know?”

Bucky nods. “I told him. Right after - I didn’t - I didn’t put together the faces with - with the names until I saw him. It - it’s different than seeing tapes.”

Steve, in some dark place in his mind, wonders what part of Tony had reminded Bucky of Howard - and Maria, who Steve had never met. Had Tony’s eyes gone wide with fear the same way, or -

“How did he take it?” Steve says, slowly and carefully, but they’re here, aren’t they? The answer is staring him in the face in the form of Bucky, intact and protected

“I killed his _parents_ , Steve, how the fuck do you think he took it? He’s still going up there, which is _fucking stupid -_ ” And then Bucky’s face just suddenly goes blank.

“Buck?” Steve says, after a moment, and then, after another, “Bucky?”

He watches as Bucky breathes, in and out, in and out. “You’re not surprised,” he says, flat and cold. He looks up at Steve, square in the eyes, “You knew.”

“I -” he says, and he doesn’t know where to start. “I suspected. Something a Hydra - a Hydra agent said, and - it matched up with some of what we found in the datafiles. But I wasn’t - I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t know.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Steve!” Bucky says, and he sounds more like the Bucky Barnes he remembers than he has this whole time. “You knew.”

“It wasn’t you. It didn’t -”

“It was _my hands_!” He looks down at his right hand and his empty left sleeve. “Hand.”

“That doesn’t mean it was you.”

“That doesn’t mean I - that doesn’t - _argh!_ ” He puts his palm down on the table. “That doesn’t mean he didn’t deserve to know,” he says, more levelly.

“Maybe he did,” Steve admits, “That doesn’t mean that - that reopening that wound would have done any good. It was so -”

“Don’t say ‘so long ago’, Steve, I swear to god -”

“Well it _was!_ For _everyone else_ it _was_!” Steve snaps. “Maybe he didn’t need that dredged up again. Maybe he didn’t need to relive it.” He exhales slowly, trying to stop his hands from shaking. “That’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it? Move on.”

Files stamped DECEASED with the names of his friends he’d seen - days ago, to him. Peggy, in a hospital bed, who he wasn’t there in time for.

Railcars, and mountains.

“So you decided,” Bucky says, “That he wouldn’t want to know about it, yeah? Or was it just that you didn’t want to talk about it?”

“Maybe I didn’t!” Steve shouts. “Maybe I didn’t want to think about the decades that my _best friend_ spent as a _brainwashed murderer_ while I did _nothing!_ Maybe I didn’t want to think about the _possibility_ that one of my _friends_ was murdered by _you_ ! So yeah, I let it stay buried! Maybe that wasn’t something _I_ wanted to dredge up and dwell on! _Can you blame me?_ ”

Bucky looks at him, as he heaves out breaths, slowly realizing that he had been shouting louder than he meant to. “Do you?” he asks simply, and Steve knows the answer.

 

\---

\---

 

Tony stands in front of the graves, fidgeting a little. Finally, he sets the flowers down.

“You would have told me off for dawdling, so I guess - “ He sits down in the grass with a heavy sigh. “Hi, Mom and Dad. It’s been a while.”

He takes a deep breath, fiddling with the edge of his jacket. “I guess I just wanted to say - I’m sorry.

"I found out - I found out how you died a few months ago, so - I guess part of me is sorry that it’s taken me so long to come here.” He says, smiling ruefully.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to find out. I’m sorry that I - that I blamed you, Dad. I know it wasn’t your fault. Maybe I -”

He takes a deep breath, ducking his head to rest on his knees. “I’m sorry you - you died that way. I’m sorry that you - I’m sorry.

"If - I don’t know. It wasn’t his fault. And there’s - god,” He lets out a breath, “I don’t know if there’s anything you could have done. I don’t know. I want to be - I -” he laughs, hollow, “I’m sorry, I almost wish there was something you could have done, that you - that you and SHIELD should have known. About him. But - I don’t know. I don’t know.

“But - I’m sorry. That you’ll never get justice. Not - I - I hope you would have understood. I hope you wouldn’t have wanted Barnes - hurt. Hurt more.” He adds, “But - what Natasha and Steve found in the files - the people who gave the order. They’re all long dead. No one ever - they’ll never be brought to justice. And - and I’m sorry for that.”

His hands dig into the grass around him, trying, in some way, to ground himself here. He holds on for a few moments.

“I miss you.”

He sits in front of their graves, and breathes.

 

\---

\---

 

“You might want to - sit down.” Steve says, fidgeting with the edge of his sleeve.

Tony looks up at him, a little incredulous. “Seriously, Rogers, you’re -”

“Tony.”

Tony pulls out a chair and swings it around. “Alright, hit me.”

“Bucky told you that - told you that the Winter Soldier killed your parents.”

“Cap, if you think I’m going to - if this is about my testimony tomorrow, he’s -”

“It’s not. It’s -” Steve sighs and takes a seat. “In DC, we - talked, to a Hydra supercomputer that claimed to be --”

“Steve, I know -”

“He - implied - the Winter Soldier was involved in Howard’s death.” He takes a deep breath. “The Hydra files corroborated it, once we knew what we were looking for.”

Tony’s face is seemingly blank. “What are you telling me?”

“I’m saying I knew. Or - I knew well enough to say something. I thought -” He starts, and then bites back the justification. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. I was trying - I was trying to spare myself and - and you deserved to know. I'm sorry.” He inhales quickly, jaw tight. “You shouldn’t have had to find out that way. I should have -”

“You knew.” Tony says, flat.

He nods.

Tony laughs. “Of course.”

“Tony -”

“Why tell me now?”

He thinks for a moment. “Because - if I want my team to be honest with me, I need to be honest with you. I just - I needed to be reminded of that.”

Tony stares at the table for a long while, and for a moment Steve thinks he’s about to pull on the gauntlet.

“Alright,” Tony says, finally.

“Alright?”

“Alright, yeah,” Tony says. “Let’s dial up the honesty meter to ninety percent then,”

Steve lets out a huff of laughter without thinking, “Ninety percent?”

“Believe me, you don’t want the one-hundred percent honest answer to ‘how are you doing?’ on a daily basis. _I_ don’t want the hundred percent honest answer to ‘how are you doing?’ on a daily basis.”

“Fair enough.” Steve says. “Ninety percent honesty it is.”

 

\---

\---

 

“Tony?”

It’s Rhodey’s voice, distant, but it’s enough to shake him from out of his daze. He realizes he’s - he’s been sitting here in silence for. Well. A while.

He looks over his shoulder - Rhodey and Pepper haven’t followed him, but they are watching with concern from a distance. He pushes himself to his feet and waves them over.

“I take you guys to all the best date spots, right?” He jokes nervously, but Pepper just pulls him into a hug, and Rhodey wraps around both of them. Pepper rubs small circles into his back and Rhodey has one hand in his hair as he leans into them, ducking his head and burying it against their shoulders.

He gives up on trying not to cry.

 

\---

\---

 

Pepper’s hair is frazzled as she rushes into the UN office. “Are you alright?” She asks Rhodey before saying anything else.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” He says.

She takes a few steps into the room and then stops, fidgeting and hovering near him.

“Seriously, Pep, it wasn’t that bad, I’m not going to break.”

With that, she closes the distance, and wraps him in a tight hug, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.

“Oh, come here, you,” She says to Tony, waving an arm and gesturing him to come join the hug as well.

“You didn’t have to come.” Tony says when she finally lets him go.

“Of course I came. This is important.”

“Yeah, but - you’re supposed to have - have a break from all our - nonsense.”

“Well, it turns out being on the other side of an ocean wasn’t really stopping me from worrying about you two.”

“We really are fine,” Rhodey says.

Pepper looks at him skeptically, which, fair. “You’re testifying tomorrow?”

Tony nods.

Pepper smiles at him. “You’re doing good. Both of you.” She tugs them back into a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Are you going to stay?” Tony asks quietly, his face pressed into Pepper’s shoulder. “For the trial?”

Pepper lets out a breath, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “Tony - yes. Yes, of course.”

“Good, because jetlag with that short a turnaround - that’s not fun. Suppose you could stay in Berlin, plenty of good touristy things to see. There’s a chocolatier you’d probably like, I think, it’s not that far -”

“Tony -” she shakes her head, “How is he -?” she asks Rhodey, trailing off into a moment clearly meant to encompass some small fraction of Tony’s particular denseness.

“Are you really surprised?” Rhodey says.

“No,” she says with a laugh, then adds, “Tony, I’m staying right here.”

 

\---

\---

 

Pepper and Rhodey are holding on to Tony as Barnes stands with Steve and Sam in the grass. Natasha has made her way back from the graves she was visiting, but Vision is still floating throughout the graveyard.

He feels like he shouldn’t be watching, but can’t turn away. Sam is talking to Steve, but he can’t quite pay attention to their conversation.

Tony looks up, now disentangled from Pepper and Rhodey, and waves at him. He looks over at Steve.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Steve asks.

“No, I - I think I’d rather do this alone.”

“We’ll be right here.” Steve says.

He walks towards Tony and the graves.

“Hey,” Tony says, and his eyes are still red.

He hesitates, before he can get any nearer the graves.

“It’s okay,” Tony says, “Really. C’mon.”

Pepper smiles at him, and Rhodey nods.

“We’ll be right over here,” Pepper says as he finally forces his feet to take him to the side of the graves. She leads Tony and Rhodey a little ways away, out of earshot.

He stares down at the picture and the flower in his hands. The picture is an old one Steve had dug up, of Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, and Howard Stark. They’re all laughing.

He has no memory of it.

But that’s okay, he tells himself. That’s what Dr. Keyworth would say. It’s okay not to remember it all. And when he thinks about it that way, he can look at that picture, and be glad that Bucky Barnes had been happy, in that moment. That all three of them had been.

He sets the picture down on Howard’s grave, sets the flower down on Maria’s.

He doesn’t know what to say, because what do you say? ‘I’m sorry I killed you’? ‘I’m sorry I didn’t stop myself’? ‘I’m sorry my face was the last face you saw and I didn’t even recognize you’? ‘I’m sorry that I couldn’t remember until I met your son’? ‘I’m sorry you never got to see who he became’?

I’m sorry that it hurt, that it wasn’t quick. I’m sorry that you were afraid.

He reaches out, lightly touches the two graves, with his right hand. He ducks his head.

“I’m sorry.”

 

\---

\---

 

“Yeah, torture, coercion, modification,” Tony taps his chest, leaning back in the witness stand, “manipulation - been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.”

Jim, sitting next to Steve in the packed courtroom benches, half smiles and rolls his eyes but his eyes are damp at the corners when he reaches up to cover his face.

“The Ten Rings had me for three months - everyone knows this, it’s been in the papers, they went through the works - head underwater, hot irons - and this was after I’d had an electromagnet shoved into my chest by -” And Tony stutters, looking up at their bench in the stands, and Steve turns to look at Jim, who’s watching Tony like there’s no one else in the room, and who smiles a little, encouraging, and mouths something that looks a little like _‘you ride with me’._

And Tony nods, just a little, not something you’d notice if you weren’t watching. “- by my friend, the only person in that cave who gave a damn whether I lived or died.” And he reaches up, taps his chest again. “He shoved an electromagnet in my chest, and hooked it to a car battery, and that’s the reason I’m still alive. But let me tell you, if you’ve never had shrapnel in your chest, and an electromagnet on top of it - there’s. Pain. There’s still pain. It gets to be background noise, after a while, but it’s never gone.”

Jim has his hand clenched in a fist, pressed up against his mouth, but he doesn’t look away.

“I haven’t looked at Barnes’ arm for long, but I can tell you that wearing that, even on someone with Barnes’s strength, would cause a significant amount of - of chronic pain. Also, it’s just terrible engineering,” Tony says, looking up at Jim and smiling, and Jim lets out a huff of laughter through his nose, and there are crinkles around his eyes. Pepper hiccups slightly. Jim drops his hand from in front of his face, instead gripping the bench in front of him.

Tony breathes, and speaks levelly. “The Ten Rings had me for three months. Hydra had Barnes for _years_ before the first reported mission of the Winter Soldier.”

Jim’s fingers are gripping the back of the seat in front of them so tightly that Steve is worried about the structural integrity of wood.

He reaches out cautiously to put a hand on Jim’s shoulder. “Do you need to step out?” He says in an undertone.

“No,” Jim says, not even looking at him. “No, I’m good right here.”

On the other side, Pepper reaches over and offers a hand to Jim. He lets go of the back of the seat and takes her hand.

“I’m staying right here.” He says.

 

\----

\----

 

He looks up from the graves, and they’re all still there. Rhodey, Pepper, Tony.

He realizes he doesn’t want to stand here any longer. He walks over to them.

“Hey, Barnes,” Rhodey says.

He tries to smile and isn’t quite sure if he manages it.

“You doing okay?”

He shrugs.

“Yeah,” Rhodey looks over at Pepper, then at Tony, “C’mon, let’s walk,”

He follows Rhodey through the rows of headstones, as Rhodey starts to ask him questions about his college work - virtual classrooms, but he had more than enough to catch up on.

“So, what classes are you taking this semester?”

“Intro to Engineering -”

“What?” Tony cuts in, mock-offended, “the Stark brand engineering lessons aren’t good enough for you?”

“Hey,” He says, feeling words coming a little easier, and immensely grateful to Rhodey for his question, “I can’t expect you to teach me everything.”

“C’mon, what else?” Rhodey asks.

“An intro on criminal justice, and and a class on world history, starting with the Cold War.”

“Yeah?” Tony asks, aiming for casual and failing, “How’s that going?”

“It’s - interesting.” Barnes says, “The other day we learned about a Soviet Officer who jumped over the chain of command to report an incoming missile alert as a false alarm. The one where it turned out to be clouds. That’s not fake, is it? Because -”

“No, that’s real.” Tony says, “Stranger than fiction, huh?”

“Yeah.” He says, “Yeah, definitely.”

Tony grins. “Glad you’re getting the most of college, kid.”

He smiles, unexpectedly. It feels real this time. “Me too.”

 

\---

\---

 

“ I’ve been thinking.” Bucky takes a deep breath. “I think - tomorrow, when they’re talking about sentencing, I should talk to Jennifer. I should offer to go under again. In the cryo chamber.”

“Buck -” Steve starts, the name falling off his lips without even thinking. “Listen, I know this has been -”

“It’s not about the trial. I almost killed you -” he says, looking at Rhodey. “If Tony hadn’t been there I would have. Anyone can make me do that again. All they have to do is say the damn words.”

“Hey, Barnes -” Rhodey starts, but Bucky just continues.

“And - maybe you guys can find a way to fix it, but -” he says, looking at Tony and Rhodey - Tony is standing stiffly, braced against Rhodey’s shoulder, “But I can’t trust my own head, and if I’m under, I can’t hurt anyone.” He half smiles, tight and unhappy. “It doesn’t even hurt,” he says, with an edge of bitterness, like that makes it inadequate, insufficient punishment.

“Bucky,” Steve says.

“Steve, I - you gotta trust me on this one.”

Steve tries to breathe. “I - okay. If this is what you want. Then - okay, we’ll make it happen.”

“ _Okay?_ ” Tony blurts out, strangled, with so much vehemence it’s as though the all the tension in him finally snapped free. “No, it is not okay, it is the furthest thing from okay, it is - “ He chokes on his own words - Rhodey’s hand is on Tony’s shoulder, steadying him. Tony looks up, straight at Bucky. “Look, kid - you can’t trust your own head, that’s rough, really, it is, but you know what? Neither can I, and -” He continues, though his voice shakes, “Locking yourself away doesn’t help anything. You’re worried that you’re going to hurt people, fine. You know who else can hurt people? Every one of us. Rhodey’s armor got hijacked, Bruce -” Here he hesitates a little - Bruce’s leaving is still hanging heavily over them “ - _literally_ turns into a giant rage monster, Barton got his mind warped by an alien god, Maximoff mind-fucked half of us and - and then,” he adds, “there’s me, who couldn’t trust my own mind so I built a genocidal robot. Blew up most of a small country, and now we’re all here. Great work.”

“Tony,” Rhodey says. Tony sighs.

“Safeguards - safeguards are important. It’s why we’re here. But safeguards doesn’t mean locking yourself in a frozen _coffin_ , for chrissakes, I’ve seen the pictures of that thing, and yeah, I could build it better, but better tech or not you’re still doing time as a Barnes-sicle. You want safeguards, Friday will have you on 24/7 observation with an army of suits around your room. You’ll be in a building with the most powerful people on the planet. If I need to drag the Hulk back here to sit outside your door I _will,_ because god knows you can’t put a scratch on him.”

“Tony,” Bucky says, quietly. “Rhodes was there, you were there, Steve and Sam and Natasha and Sharon - they were all there when I -”

“And you didn’t get away. And nobody died,” Tony says. “And now we know - and now we know and we can - fuck, if I have to make implants that play the Ave Maria for you every time they recognize those damn code words I can do that, and if you need Dr. Keyworth and a team of specialists available twenty-four seven and every damn drug on the planet to help make things seem a little clearer and more bearable and make all of this _shit_ not hurt you so bad we _will. make. it. happen._ ” Tony sighs. “I can’t fix it. But we aren’t - we aren’t leaving you alone because your head’s a little busted. We’re not going to do that.”

And he’s not - not quite meeting Bucky’s eyes, his gaze is somewhere in the middle distance, past Bucky, seeing - remembering - something else.

Tony’s not just talking to Bucky, and that -

He’d gone back to the video from before this all started, trying - trying to understand, maybe - the video of Tony at MIT, and BARF, and - saying the things you wish you could have said. To others, but, watching Tony, he thinks it might be to himself as well.

Steve wonders how much else he’s missed.

 

\---

\---

 

Steve makes his way across the graveyard towards Tony, Barnes, Rhodey, and Pepper, who are now walking towards him.

“Hey, Steve, Hey, Cap.” Tony says by way of greeting. Sam waves.

“Hey,” Steve says. Barnes is still talking to Rhodey. “How are you doing?” He asks Tony.

Tony’s eyes are still red, which is in part an answer to that question, but he half-smiles. “I've been worse. Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Ninety percent honesty, Steve,” He says with a grin. “But - yeah. Doing better. What about you, Rogers?” He adds, “How’s the non-Cap life?”

“It’s - yeah. It’s good.”

“Good? This dude’s got like, more cookbooks than I knew they _made._ I haven’t been into my own kitchen in _weeks._ ” Sam says, “Still doesn’t know how to spice anything worth a damn, but hey, he’s making improvements.”

“The local soup kitchen needed some extra hands,” Steve says by way of explanation, and Sam rolls his eyes.

“And how are you doing sans-kitchen, Captain America?” Tony asks Sam.

“Wishing the job involved a little less time with lawyers,” He says, “But Jen’s great. And the new UN liaison's a big improvement.”

Tony grins. Steve can imagine why; Friday had been the one who had discovered the paper trail that linked Ross directly to an unauthorized secret underwater prison, and ultimately forced him down from his position as Secretary of State and as the liaison between the Avengers and the UN. The revelation had given them the leverage they needed to allow a reopening of the portions of the accords Ross had had most influence on, and Jennifer Walters - with the team's input - had certainly taken them to town. The new Secretary of State - and the new UN liaison - is compassionate, a bit of a nerd, and more than smart enough to keep up with Jen. Of course she and Sam have got along.

“How’s the paint job working out with the wings? Any issues? I’ve had a few new polymer concepts -”

“It looks good, man.” Sam says, “Still feels weird to be the one in the red, white and blue, though. I’m getting used to it,” He adds, elbowing Steve, “So don’t get any ideas.”

“No ideas,” He says, “I’m good where I am.”

 

\---

\---

 

Steve stares at the pens on the table. The pens, and the thousand-odd page document they’re sitting next to.

“I don’t know if I can do - this.”

Tony sighs. “Cap, give me a break. I’m trying to meet you halfway here -”

“No, that’s - I’m not talking about the accords.” He sighs. “I don’t know if I can do _this._ Being ‘Cap’.”

And Tony snorts, then laughs outright. “Okay. Okay. Ca - Okay. Steve. You may have picked like, the worst person in the world to talk to about this, but. Okay. Hit me.”

“What you did today, what you’re doing with the trial, for Bucky, it was -” He tries to find a word other than ‘absolutely terrifying.’ “- it was amazing. But - “ He sighs. He’d thought he’d had his thoughts together.

“Okay, my brilliance has been acknowledged, good,” Tony says. “Seriously, what’s eating you - Steve.”

“I spent - I spent some time doing ‘public relations.’ Trying to get public opinion on - for the war. And - it made me feel like a -" He lets out a snort of humorless laughter, "- a trained monkey. I -” He sighs.

“I imagine it was harder, back before Twitter and cable news,” Tony says.

“I just - If that’s who I - if that’s what the world needs Captain America to be - I don’t - I don’t know if I can do that. Can be that.”

Tony pauses, thinking. “Natasha said you did a pretty good job inspiring public opinion back in DC.”

“That’s different,” Steve says. “That’s - people. That’s not - _this._ ”

Because it was different - talking to people, even if you couldn’t see them, instead of talking when you knew your words would be sampled and condensed and misquoted and turned into soundbites and turned over on every talk news show. He’s seen all of them, over the past day, Tony’s words, over and over and over, and it feels like reading the same script again, knocking out Hitler over a hundred times.

“Yeah. Yeah,” Tony says, then, quieter, “You know, being good at it doesn’t always mean it feels that great, too.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean -”

“It’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” Tony says, waving a hand, as though it’s just an offhand comment, not important, even though they both know it’s not.

“How do you do it?” Steve asks, the words tumbling out.

“Experience,” Tony says, “Hey, you started off with twenty-odd years of basic anonymity - I bet they never even published your middle school grades in international magazines. They didn’t get to rooting through your grades until after you were pulling time as a Capsicle. You’ve had a lot less time with the world looking at you than the world has spent looking at you, believe me. Miracle of cryogenics and the super soldier serum, amiright?” Tony sighs. “Point is - you can’t expect yourself to be good at this yet.”

Steve’s still reeling in trying to picture what his life would have been like if his grades had been published in newspapers before he can even get to parsing out the grammatical construction of some of Tony’s sentences.

“How - how do you not - how do you keep it out of your head?”

Tony laughs. “Have you _met_ me?” He says flippantly, and then sighs. “You know, Peggy was the only person, when I was growing up, who wasn’t paid to be around me, and didn’t treat me like the scion of the Stark Empire. You - you found a good one there,” Tony says, smiling weakly up at Steve. “And - and Rhodey,” and here Tony grins, real and bright with sudden memory, “Jim Rhodes was too busy working his ass off to get exactly to where he wanted to be to give a damn whose kid I was. Still doesn’t. You know he started MIT only a year older than I did? I think the only thing he cared about was the fact that I was showing him up.” Tony smiles at the floor for a moment. “And Pepper. Yeah. Pep never puts up with my bullshit. You -” Tony says, “you find those people and - you don’t let them go. You don’t push them away. Because when it gets into your head they won’t take your shit.”

And Steve thinks of Peggy, who’d believed in him before he’d ever worn red, white, and blue. About Sam, who’d been able to call to his experience as a veteran, not as Captain America, the first time they met.

About Bucky, who’d only ever been following the boy from Brooklyn.

Steve sighs, tries to put words in the right order. “I signed up for the army because it was the only way I knew to fight the good fight. It took some time, but - with the Commandos, I really felt like I was making a difference. It was - it wasn’t easy, but it was. Straightforward. When I came back, the Avengers were - my way to fight the good fight. The best way I could see. But - the world now needs something more than fighting the good fight. And, while that’s true - I don’t know if I’m the right person to lead the Avengers.”

“Steve -”

“Tony, the Avengers are your family, you know that. Nats' too.  I - I still don’t think I’ve figured out who I am, now. Figured out where’s home. I hope that can be with the team, I really do, but - maybe I just need to stop fighting, before I can figure it out.”

Tony looks at him, inscrutable. “What’s Wilson think about this?”

“I haven’t - we haven’t talked about it, yet.”

“If - if you ever want to talk about it,” Tony says, quietly, “with someone who isn’t Wilson. I can give you - I could give you some names.”

“Thank you,” Steve says, trying to, somehow, convey the weight of what Tony isn’t saying. “Tony, thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine. Listen, I - you know I gotta ask,” Tony says,  “Is this about Barnes? Because - ”

“No - I, maybe a little. It’s just -” Steve sighs. “I lost Peggy and I got Bucky back practically in the same day, but - the trial, and - everything, it’s made me realize that he’s not the same person, and I guess - maybe it made me realize that I’m not the same person, too, and that - no matter what happens, it’s never going to be how it used to be. That’s gone.”

“Steve, I - I’m sorry.”

Steve huffs out a laugh. “I guess - I guess I just need to figure out what it means to be Steve Rogers in the 21st century.”

“Well, Steve Rogers,” Tony says, holding out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, Tony,” Steve says, and smiles.

 

\---

\---

 

As they all draw closer to the gates, they slow, and eventually come to a stop, a ways before the gate, not quite yet willing to get into separate cars.

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” Tony says as they stand around, and holds out his arms, half jokingly, “Should we just bring it in for a group hug?”

Rhodey grins, “Hey man, if you ask for it,” he says, before pulling Tony into a bear hug that almost lifts him off his feet. Pepper laughs and throws her arms around their necks.

Tony looks over at them, and tilts his head, shrugging as much as he can in Pepper and Rhodey’s grip, as if to say _I mean, if you want?_

Barnes looks over at Steve.

“It’s up to you.” Steve says.

Natasha hugs Tony from behind his back. “Hey!” He teases, grinning, “No sneak attacks!”

“Hey, while you two grandpas make up your mind, I’m getting in on some team bonding that doesn’t involve punching stuff,” Sam says, joining the group hug along with Vision.

Steve laughs, and, with a quick glance at him, walks towards the group as well, putting an arm around Sam’s waist and the other around Nat’s shoulders.

The seven of them, in the middle of the graveyard. And yet - they look happy, his team. His new team.

Maybe more than a team. Someday, maybe, when he’s ready to think about words like ‘family’.

He’s got time.

He walks over, leans in against Natasha and Steve, just there, on the outside, so that he doesn’t feel trapped, but close enough to feel them breathe.

Somehow, Tony extricates a hand from between various shoulders, holding it out towards his own left hand.

He takes it and holds on.

He doesn’t know how long they’re all standing there, but finally Tony says, “Alright, I do still have to breathe here. Working with about eighty percent lung capacity here, c’mon, bonding time is over - oh, I’m _fine_.” He adds, as Steve looks at him, concerned.

“This was _your_ idea,” Natasha teases as they all gradually let go of each other.

As they finally make their way through the gates and out of the graveyard, Tony falls into step beside him. “Still got some good grip strength there, Barnes,” He says, grinning as he makes an exaggerated show of rubbing at his hand. “So how's the mark 12 holding up? Good mobility? Does it hurt?”

“No,” he says, after thinking for a moment. “No, it doesn't hurt.”

“Well, good. I thought -”

He looks over at Tony as Tony continues to muse aloud. “What about you?” He asks, tapping his chest. "Does it hurt?"

Tony looks briefly taken aback. Then his face softens.

“Getting better, kid. Getting better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you ever think about the fact that the working title of The Avengers was 'Group Hug' because I do.
> 
> The story about the Soviet officer is true, by the way, his name was Stanislav Petrov and he's the reason we're all still alive for you to be reading this fic. Look him up!
> 
> Drop me a comment or come say hi over on tumblr! (I'm squireofgeekdom there too)


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